Having got off to an impressive start, when winning their 2026/27 Elior Champ Rugby opener 45-19 at home to Doncaster Knights last Sunday, in Round 2 of the competition the Cornish Pirates will play Coventry away on Saturday (ko 3pm).

A fully contested affair is expected on the 4G synthetic pitch at the ‘Nick Newbold Stadium’, as ‘Cov’ will be keen to bounce back from their 38-35 loss away to Rotherham Titans in their league opener. One to watch will be former ‘Pirate’ Bruce Houston, who scored a try and slotted five conversions in the narrow defeat.

There are certain changes for the Cornish Pirates in their starting XV this week. Both centre Chester Ribbons and lock Steele Barker picked up injuries against the Knights, so Joe Elderkin slots into the centre and Tomi Agbongbon is selected at No. 8, with Hugh Bokenham this week moving up into the second row.

Josh King and Luke Ratcliff come onto the bench, and if Matt Cannon features, as is likely, then it will mark his 50^th appearance for the club.

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

“Coventry have recruited well and have a lot of quality in their team and beaten in a high-scoring game against Harvey Biljon’s Titans they will looking to right their wrongs and be ultra keen to record a win this weekend. 

“Former ‘Pirate’ Bruce Houston has obviously settled in well there and we know the threat that he poses as a good player, who is also a good man.

“Looking back on Sunday, in the first half I felt there were opportunities for us to pull away with ball in hand, plus we felt our power in the scrum didn’t get any reward, so that is something we have been looking at. Overall, though, it was very pleasing that we stuck to task and ultimately recorded such a result.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for this weekend is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Henry Palmer 14 Arthur Relton 13 Harry Ascherl 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Josh Radcliffe 10 Arwel Robson 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 Alessandro Heaney 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Alfie Petch 4 Milo Hallam 5 Hugh Bokenham 6 Alex Everett (captain) 7 Alex Forsythe 8 Tomi Agbongbon.

Replacements:   16 Matt Pritchard 17 Jamie Clark 18 Osman Dimen 19 Matt Cannon 20 Josh King 21 Luke Ratcliff 22 Will Becconsall 23 Finn Love.

Referee:   Andy Wigley

Assistants:   Hamish Grant & Henry Lowis

Official 4:   James Minards