For their Round 19 match in this season’s ‘Champ’ Rugby competition, the Cornish Pirates will travel to play Cambridge away this Saturday, where the kick-off on the home team’s Ellgia Fields ground is at 2pm.

Despite the ‘Blood & Sand’, to give Cambridge their nickname, lying 14^th and winless at the foot of the league table, the Cornish Pirates will rightly be taking nothing for granted against a team who have pushed opponents close in a good number of games this season.,

The Cornish Pirates selection this week sees three changes in their starting line up from the one that ran out at home to Nottingham last weekend. In the backs, Ben Cambriani slots back in on one of the wing berths, whilst in the forwards Alfie Petch is named at tight-head prop and a now fully fit Matt Cannon is selected to partner Josh King in the second row.

Commenting ahead of the weekend, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle has said:

“We were really pleased with our win last weekend at home to Nottingham which saw us leapfrog them into seventh place in the league. The outcome was crucial for us to stay in touch with the top six, and at the end of a tight contest we showed our character to achieve what I felt was a deserved win over the eighty minutes.

“As for this week Cambridge have also shown character. They drew with Doncaster Knights recently and have been unlucky to be pipped in certain other games. Well-coached by former ‘Pirate’ Will Britton, they have become more cohesive, have a good line-out, and the stats show they are very physical. For us it is simply a must win game, at a time when the pressure is on if we are serious about competing in the play-offs.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for Saturday is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Angus Mawson 14 Arthur Relton 13 Chester Ribbons 12 Harry Yates 11 Ben Cambriani 10 Louie Sinclair 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 James French 2 Sol Moody 3 Alfie Petch 4 Matt Cannon 5 Josh King 6 Alex Everett (captain) 7 Luke Ratcliff 8 Tomi Agbongbon.

Replacements:   16 Morgan Nelson 17 Ollie Andrews 18 Ben Woodmansey 9 Milo Hallam 20 Rory Suttor 21 Will Rigelsford 22 Arwel Robson 23 Matty Ward.

Referee:   Ben Simpson

Assistants:   John Meredith & Gregg Dawson

Official 4:   Richard Steggall