For their penultimate game of the season the Cornish Pirates are away on Saturday to Doncaster Knights (ko 2.30pm).

The match at Castle Park will be a 4^th versus 3^rd affair, with there just one Championship league point separating the two sides. Impressively, the Knights have won their last 10 matches, including a 41-35 victory away to Hartpury last Saturday, which was the home side’s first home defeat this season. Also, the Cornish Pirates have been in good form, winning their last six games.

Changes in the Cornish Pirates starting line-up from the one that ran out against Ampthill last weekend sees Bruce Houston move from fly-half to full-back, with Iwan Jenkins named in the ‘10’ shirt. Harry Hocking starts at hooker and Tyler Gendall, now aged 30, who in the past made 76 appearances in Pirates’ colours and has been playing for Redruth, is selected at tight-head prop. A new name on the bench, arriving at the Mennaye Field from Munster this week to provide injury cover, is that of 22-year-old prop Darragh McSweeney.

Commenting ahead of Saturday’s game, Cornish Pirates’ coach Joe Walsh has said:

“We are under no illusion that Doncaster Knights have a very good side. They have a lot of attacking threats, and the quality of their players and the way they perform is high.

“It is a big trip for us in terms of travel, therefore it will also be important to get the flow of energy right on the morning of the game and to go into the match with the right mindset to hopefully execute our gameplan.

“We know they are not going to die and that they will play the whole 80 minutes, so if we are to be in with a chance we will need to put together a complete performance.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for Saturday is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Bruce Houston 14 Robin Wedlake 13 Chester Ribbons 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Matt McNab 10 Iwan Jenkins 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 Billy Young 2 Harry Hocking 3 Tyler Gendall 4 Charlie Rice 5 Josh King 6 Matt Cannon 7 Jack Forsythe 8 Alex Everett (captain).

Replacements:   16 Matt Pritchard 17 Jenson Boughton 18 Darragh McSweeney `19 Fintan Coleman 20 Tomiwa Agbongbon 21 Will Rigelsford 22 Tom Georgiou 23 Harry Yates.