Having recently impressed in recording four league wins on the trot, the Cornish Pirates travel to play Ampthill on Sunday where they will be keen to extend the run to five. It will also, of course, be their final fixture in 2024, where the kick-off at Dillingham Park is at 1.30pm.

For the ninth versus sixth affair in Round 10 of the Championship, the Cornish Pirates have made just the two changes in personnel from the side that started in the 19-14 win at home against Doncaster Knights last Saturday. Matt McNab picked up an injury in that game so Will Trewin switches from full-back to wing, with Iwan Price-Thomas selected in the number 15 shirt, whilst in the pack Josh King is named to partner Lewis Pearson in the second row.

For Cornish Pirates’ flanker Will Gibson, it will be his 80^th appearance before departing for Australia, and as for the bench Will Rigelsford is listed as a replacement to provide scrum half cover for the injured Cam Jones.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s match, Cornish Pirates’ coach Joe Walsh has commented:

“We have had a good run of results but, as ever, will be taking nothing for granted ahead of this weekend. Ampthill can be a tricky place to visit, as we have found in the past, and their side is one difficult to predict. Also, despite inevitable Christmas disruption, it has been important that we strive to prepare best can.

“For us, winning four on the bounce has certainly been a good set of results, but they haven’t come easy, and we had to work for them in different ways and in difficult conditions. We have also battled with injuries and with forced changes but having set out to achieve certain areas of our game at the beginning of the season, we have been very happy where progress has been made.”

Cornish Pirates:   15 Iwan Price-Thomas 14 Arthur Relton 13 Charlie McCaig 12 Harry Yates 11 Will Trewin 10 Bruce Houston 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 Billy Young 2 Harry Hocking 3 Alfie Petch 4 Josh King 5 Lewis Pearson 6 Martin Moloney 7 Will Gibson 8 Hugh Bokenham (captain).

Replacements:   16 Sol Moody 17 Oisin Michel 18 James French 19 Matt Cannon 20 Tomi Agbongbon 21 Will Rigelsford 22 Robin Wedlake 23 Chester Ribbons.