Duncan’s the hat-trick hero again for Cornish Pirates
PIRATES’ hat-trick hero Tom Duncan admitted it is becoming a bit of a habit after notching a treble against Bedford for a second season running yesterday.
The burly No.8 touched down three times in the first half as fourth-placed Pirates narrowed the gap to third-placed Bedford to just one point.
Blues scrum-half Jordan Burns also notched a hat-trick of his own, while Harry Sheppard’s last-gasp penalty earnt the hosts a losing bonus point to keep their noses just in front of the Cornishmen.
Duncan, far right, said: “I’ve only scored a couple of hat-tricks and one of them was against Bedford last year so they’re a lucky team to play against! Against Bedford it seems to be a habit so hopefully it will continue next year.
“That was in the first half and I was probably running on empty a bit second half. But we dug deep in the second, especially the last 10 minutes, we defended for a long time but managed to keep out and get the win so that was great.
“It’s a hard place to come, they’re third place in the table for a reason, they’re a really good side. We came up here with a plan to win, we won. One more game and we will finish strong down at the Mennaye and hopefully we’ll get through (finish third).”
The game swung one way then the other as Howard Packman scored Bedford’s third try, with Alex O’Meara sinbinned for a tackle in the air on Dean Adamson, to open up a 21-12 lead, thanks also to three conversions from Will Hooley. However, Pirates struck back to take control as Will Cargill kicked nine points, while Kyle Moyle and captain Nicolas De Battista touched down either half of half time to ensure victory for the visitors. Despite the defeat, Burns was happy with his hat-trick and still targeting a hugely successful end to the season for the Blues who travel to Ealing Trailfindthem
ers in the semi-finals of the B&I Cup next weekend.
He added: “It’s great to get a hat-trick in a game, you don’t get many of those. We’re disappointed with the loss, but we’ll take it on the chin. Credit to Pirates, they were really good, they played a really good game, we knew they’d come and play here. We ultimately weren’t on our game and we’ll look forward to next weekend against Ealing in the semifinal of the B&I Cup.
“Accuracy let us down. We threw a few passes here and there that weren’t good enough and that ultimately didn’t help us. They were more clinical than us today.
“It gets us the two points, not what we wanted, but it’s what we have. We want to finish third, obviously that was a bit of a bitter pill to swallow, but our focus now will be next week and see if we can beat Ealing.”