Pirates Will Not Take Scottish Lightly!

Cornish Pirates are in Championship action on Friday evening, when they play London Scottish away at the Richmond Athletic Ground (ko 7.45pm).

A last away win for the Pirates against the Exiles side was way back in September, 2011, so they will travel with no lack of incentive, plus endeavour to reverse a losing trend.

Welcomed back from injury to lead the team is centre Nicolas De Battista. His inclusion in place of Nicolas Coronel is one of just two changes from the side that started against Hartpury RFC last weekend, the other being at tight-head prop where Christian Judge replaces Jack Andrew. Also signed back on loan with the Pirates is Redruth back-rower Chris Fuca, who is named on the bench.

Cornish Pirates’ coach Alan Paver has been pleased with the way his team have put a string of results together of recent, commenting:

In terms of performance things have moved on dramatically, despite losing a couple of players to injury along the way. We have definitely picked up our game and have ended up on the right side of the score of recent, which is great after suffering a number of narrow early losses. It has inevitably helped get our season off to a late start, but it’s a start nonetheless.

As for Friday night’s game under lights, Alan has said:

We would love to play in entertaining mode as we did in our last away game against Doncaster Knights, however you sometimes have to roll sleeves up and play with grit and determination to just get on with it. Yes, we have trained well, but we have to make sure that we go into the game well prepped, with the guys in the right frame of mind. London Scottish have a decent side and are better than their league position indicates, which is similar to where we were. To nail a sought after result we cannot take them at all lightly.