To open their December account, the Cornish Pirates will welcome Doncaster Knights to the Mennaye Field on Sunday for a Round 6 game in the RFU Championship (ko 2.30pm).

Ahead of this weekend the Knights, who are expected to have one or two familiar former ‘Pirate’ faces in their line-up, hold second place in the league, whilst the Pirates are fifth.

The Cornish Pirates selection this week shows minimal changes in their starting XV. A fit again Kyle Moyle pleasingly returns at full-back with Will Trewin moving to the wing, and in the centre Tom Georgiou is named to make his first league start for the Pirates. As for the bench, lock Charlie Rice, who has arrived on loan from Bristol Bears, is listed. Also, if he gets a call, as is expected, then for Ruardidh Dawson it will proudly mark his 50^th appearance for the club.

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

“Doncaster are a mainstay side in the Championship, and you know what you are going to get.

“I think this week is going to be a step up for us physically, as they have a big pack, are very organised at the set piece, and being proven performers at this level it will provide us with another benchmark to strive to meet.

“We look forward to welcoming one or two familiar faces returning to the Mennaye Field who will likely be in their side, and although we ourselves arrive at this stage on the back of two good wins we know we can take nothing for granted. It should be a great contest.”

Cornish Pirates:   15 Kyle Moyle 14 Will Trewin 13 Joe Elderkin 12 Tom Georgiou 11 Matt McNab 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 Marlen Walker 18 Finn Richardson 19 Charlie Rice 20 Will Gibson 21 Ruaridh Dawson 22 Iwan Jenkins 23 Frankie Nowell