Beukeboom Set for His 50th Pirates Appearance

The fixture for the Cornish Pirates away to Nottingham on Friday evening (ko 7.45pm), will see Canadian international lock Brett Beukeboom reach the 50 games milestone for the club.

The 8th versus 9th Greene King IPA Championship clash at Nottingham’s Lady Bay ground is expected to be closely fought, remembering that the Pirates, who have played one game less in the league than their opponents, succumbed to a narrow 34-31 defeat at home to the ‘Green & Whites’ in October.

Besides Brett Beukeboom’s lined up appearance on Friday, in a Cornish Pirates side to be skippered by centre Nicolas De Battista there is also a welcome return for Brett’s fellow ‘Canuck’ colleague, wing Matt Evans.

Following the postponement of last weekend’s Cornish Pirates versus Yorkshire Carnegie fixture, coach Gavin Cattle says the squad is looking forward to Friday night’s encounter, commenting:

After preparing for last week it was naturally frustrating that the match was postponed, and adjustments to our schedule had to be made. Now ready to face Nottingham we have a lot of respect for them, as they are coached well and they also look to implement a carefully thought out game plan, as witnessed when facing them earlier in the season.

They of course pose a threat but having said that our boys lifted themselves up following the disappointment of last week’s postponed fixture, have again trained well and are busting to get out there and play.

Gavin added:

Some of the lads who performed against Hartpury in the Cup also have opportunities to back up those performances in a bid to play for the shirt.