Last-minute touchdown gives Pirates narrow lead

CORNISH Pirates battled back to take a slender one-point lead to Goldington Road next week in a ten-try thriller.

Pirates co-coach Gavin Cattle said: “I was shaking my head at halftime with the fact we were losing. It was a weird game, I can’t describe it.”

On his final appearance for the club, Tom Channon set the tone for the game after Will Maisey put the Blues three points up. The Pirates hooker was at the back of the maul to mark his historic day with a try, converted by Harry Bazalgette.

The Pirates found themselves in a promising position moments later when Tommy Wyatt collected the ball in space, shrugged off a defender and found Nico De Battista who dotted down under the posts, giving Bazalgette an easy conversion.

Bedford snapped back with a converted try after a patient move was finished off by Jordan Onojaife. Wyatt got one back for Pirates, latching onto Ruaridh Dawson’s offload.

Again Bedford fought back. They managed to traffic the ball out of the scrum to Joel Matavesi, who crashed into the backline and flicked it to Alex Day to score, with Maisey adding the extras. In the final moments of the half, Bazalgette’s ambitious pass was picked off by Matt Worley who strolled over the try line.

The Blues continued the scoring in the second period. Joey Conway burst into the space created by the break-up of a lineout, and Maisey continued to impress from conversions.

Maisey flaunted his kicking skills again, with two penalty kicks, one coming at the expense of Matt Bolwell who was sent to the sinbin for a no arm challenge. But as it looked as if the Blues were taking a comfortable lead to Bedfordshire, their 16 points was flipped to a one-point deficit.

Syd Blackmore rumbled over before Matavesi stopped more damage with a big tackle to deny Dawson.

A minute later, the Bedford backline failed to stop Carwyn Penny when prop Sam Robson found himself on the wing to collect the ball and give it to Penny.

Robson’s conversion won it in the 80th minute, after Josh Caulfield fed Bolwell who dived over.