Pirates Revved up and Raring to Go

The Cornish Pirates aim to be revved up and raring to go on a return to Premiership Cup action this Friday evening when they will welcome mighty Gloucester to the Mennaye Field. In the away leg at Kingsholm last November, the Cornish side performed well before suffering a narrow 36-28 loss

This weekend’s fixture will be a 4^th versus 2^nd contest in Pool E of the competition, with a large crowd guaranteed for a game under Friday night lights, which is always a little bit special. The kick-off is at 7.30pm.

Changes in the home team’s starting line-up from the one that ran out at Ealing Trailfinders last weekend, sees Tom Georgiou named in the centre in place of the unavailable Charlie McCaig. At tight-head prop Ollie Andrews, an impressive try-scoring replacement last week, is selected to make his first start in a Pirates shirt, and lock Matt Cannon, who was not able to play against his parent club, will partner Alfie Bell in the second row. The one other change is in the back row where Lucas Dorrell comes into the team on a short-term loan from Exeter Chiefs, whilst Irish prop Tom Connolly, who has been associated with Leinster, and is similarly on loan, is named on the bench.

Speaking ahead of Friday’s game, Cornish Pirates’ coach Joe Walsh has said:

“The boys are really looking forward to being back playing at home, especially after two very difficult away fixtures at the start of the new year, and during what has been a very difficult time generally for the squad.

“Just looking back over the past couple of weeks or so, I certainly haven’t seen anything like it, with a total of some15 guys or so unavailable because of short term or long-term injury and dual-reg unavailability etcetera, so we have just had to scrap it out.

“The attitude, though, has been really good, as everyone has dug in and will now be looking to give a good account of themselves against Gloucester. It will be a big thing for us, as it will to get back in front of a home crowd at the Mennaye again, which should see the team revved up and excited to go.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for Friday is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Iwan Price-Thomas 14 Arthur Relton 13 Tom Georgiou 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Will Trewin 10 Iwan Jenkins 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 Billy Young 2 Sol Moody 3 Ollie Andrews 4 Alfie Bell 5 Matt Cannon 6 Josh King 7 Lucas Dorrell 8 High Bokenham (captain).

Replacements:   16 Harry Hocking 17 James French 18 Tom Connolly 19 Fintan Coleman 20 Tomi Agbongbon 21 Cam Jones 22 Bruce Houston 23 Harry Yates.

Unavailable for selection: Oisin Michel, Billy Keast, Jay Tyack, Eoin O’Connor, Charlie Rice, Milo Hallam, Hallam Chapman, John Stevens, Alex Everett, Matt McNab, Robin Wedlake, Chester Ribbons, Charlie McCaig.

Referee:   Ben Wood

Assistants:   James Milliner-Woodcock & Kevin Williams

Official 4:   Will Williams

PR Coach:   Steve Leyshon

Match Day Sponsor:   Microcomms

Match Ball Sponsor:   DA Giles

Match Day Collection:   The Chestnut Appeal