This weekend sees the Cornish Pirates play away in the league for the first time this season, when they travel to face Ampthill on Saturday (ko 2pm).

The Pirates, who were comfortable 61-22 winners on their last visit to the Bedfordshire side’s Dillingham Park ground back in March, can expect matters to be considerably closer this time around against one of the present in-form sides in the Championship. Indeed, in their last two outings ‘The Mob’ (the Ampthill team’s nickname) followed up an impressive 34-24 win at home to Coventry with a 36-10 points victory at London Scottish.

There are just two changes in the Cornish Pirates starting XV this week from the one that ran out at home to Caldy last Saturday. In the backs, wing Frankie Nowell will make his first outing in the league, and in the pack fit again skipper John Stevens, who featured as a replacement against Caldy, is named in the ‘7’ shirt.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s contest, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle has said:

“Ampthill have recruited well, with a lot of new faces. They also have good links with Saracens and what appears a younger demographic overall and are playing a slightly different style of game.

“The task for us, as we undertake our first road trip in the league, is to turn up in the right frame of mind, including awareness that it is going to take a big physical and emotional effort to achieve the sought-after result.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for Saturday is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Will Trewin 14 Matt McNab 13 Ioan Evans 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Frankie Nowell 10 Bruce Houston 9 Alex Schwarz; 1 Lefty Zigiriadis 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Matt Johnson 4 Hugh Bokenham 5 Steele Barker 6 Alex Everett 7 John Stevens (captain) 8 Ben Grubb.

Replacements:   16 Rhys Williams 17 Jacob Morris 18 Fin Richardson 19 Harry Dugmore 20 Will Gibson 21 Ruaridh Dawson 22 Iwan Jenkins 23 Tom Georgiou.