For their final game in 2023 on Saturday, the Cornish Pirates expect a bumper Christmas crowd when they welcome Hartpury to the Mennaye Field (ko 2.30pm).

With Kyle Moyle and Ioan Evans having both picked up injuries, their places at full-back and centre will be taken by a fit again Will Trewin and Tom Georgiou respectively. Matt McNab and Robin Wedlake are selected to form the wing combination, with Bruce Houston and Alex Schwarz once again the chosen starting half-backs.

In the forwards, Lefty Zigiriadis, who was unavailable last week, returns at loose-head prop, in what is an otherwise unchanged eight from the pack selected against the Trailfinders. Of general interest, but for the match being abandoned, the Ealing fixture would have marked flanker Will Gibson’s 50^th official appearance, which will now be celebrated this Saturday.

Talking ahead of this weekend’s contest, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle has commented:

“Losing two league games at home thus far this season wasn’t on the agenda and proved frustrating, especially in consideration of the efforts and general development shown by the players.

“We should though take confidence that we can compete with the best in the league, as was the case at Ealing last Saturday before the match was unfortunately abandoned.

“Christmas fixtures are always that little bit extra special, and looking ahead to Saturday we need to up our levels of execution, take on Hartpury with confidence, and endeavour to make amends for those two games lost.”

Tickets will be available at the gates on the day (open 12.30pm), whilst in the meantime they can also be purchased on-line. For further information please visit: www.cornish-pirates.com/tickets

The Cornish Pirates full selection is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Will Trewin 14 Matt McNab 13 Tom Georgiou 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Robin Wedlake 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 Will Gibson 8 John Stevens (captain).

Replacements:   16 Rhys Williams 17 Jacob Morris 18 Marlen Walker 19 Josh Williams 20 Harry Dugmore 21 Ruaridh Dawson 22 Iwan Jenkins 23 Frankie Nowell.