‘Lucky losers’ Cornish Pirates progress to cup quarter finals
HOPES of the Cornish Pirates progressing in the Championship Cup as a tie three winner were dashed by Doncaster Knights at the Mennaye Field on Saturday.
The Pirates were narrow 26-24 winners away to Doncaster Knights in their round one first leg match, however the Knights hit back strongly in the second leg to progress as one of five tie winners.
As for the Pirates, their cause is not lost, because they too will also progress to the quarter-final stage for being one of the two first round losing teams with the best playing records.
The Pirates’ selection saw starting roles for props Marlen Walker and Alfie Petch, with Tom Duncan making a return to skipper the team at No 8.
In the backs, Tommy Wyatt partnered Shae Tucker in the centre, whilst included on the bench was a fit-again Rory Parata.
Playing towards Newlyn, Pirates got off to a fine start. Wing Callum Sirker first went close at the old Western National corner, before a drive to the line ended with prop Petch identified as a try-scorer, his first in a Pirates shirt. Fly-half Harry Bazalgette added the extras.
Both sides created opportunities as they looked to get into rhythm, only for unaccustomed errors to blot matters. However, midway through the first-half the home team extended their lead, this time thanks to a penalty kicked by Bazalgette from in front of the Newlyn posts.
All but from the restart, the Knights broke from halfway and flanker Sam Hudson showed a clean pair of heels all the way to the Penzance posts. Fly-half Billy McBride kicked the conversion.
The Yorkshire team, with two former Pirates, full-back Harry Davey and wing Maliq Holden, among those concentrating defenders, suddenly appeared invigorated.
McBride had an opportunity to level matters with a penalty kick, only to see his effort drift wide. However, points, and indeed a lead was soon achieved by the Knights, after Hudson took advantage from a messy line-out to gather and run clear once more for an unconverted opportunist score.
With half-time approaching, there was time for the Pirates to regain the lead, an unconverted try scored wide on the left by Sirker making it 15-12 at the interval.
The Knights opened the scoring in the second half with a converted try from by hooker Will Holling.
As the half developed there was a real sense that the Knights were about to get the upper hand, which was duly confirmed when Holden scored a try at the old Western National corner. The conversion attempt from replacement Sam Olver missed, but a 15-24 scoreline with 16 minutes to go looked a little worrying. Matters only got worse when replacement Mark Best charged down a kick to score another, unconverted, try to make it 15-29.
There was a glimmer of hope for the Pirates when Doncaster replacement Ben Murphy was yellow-carded and the Pirates quickly conjured up a try. Scrum-half Tom Kessell was influential with a clever pass to fellow replacement Parata, who made it to the line at the clubhouse corner. Replacement fly-half Arwel Robson was unable to add the extras, but the Pirates were at least in with a sniff of a chance to take play to extra time.
With the aggregate score 53-46 in favour of the Knights, Pirates needed either a converted try or penalty try to level matters, but it was not to be, as a late penalty kicked by Doncaster’s Olver ultimately decided matters.
Doncaster Knights fully deserved their victory, as confirmed by Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle, who post-match commented:
“Firstly, I have to say I think Doncaster thoroughly deserved the victory.
“We had some opportunities in the first half but at times offloads weren’t going to hand because the accuracy wasn’t there, and then we had some execution difficulties kickwise playing into the wind in the second half.
“The execution from the back just wasn’t the usual standard and not what we needed it to be.”
He added: “We knew it would be a bit of a learning curve, and as ever we’ll reflect on the match.
“Basically, though, they beat us at our own game and, unfortunately, our performance level simply wasn’t high enough.”
At the time of going to press, it had not been confirmed who would be Pirates’ quarter-final opponents, which will again be over two legs.