After seven rounds played in the Championship League to date, with the Cornish Pirates in seventh place attention now turns to the Championship Cup.

Into November the first three rounds of the competition will be played, starting for the Cornish Pirates on Saturday with an away fixture against Richmond (ko 3pm). The Cornish Pirates won 21-14 when the two teams met at the Mennaye Field in the League early in September, and another likely close fought contest is expected. Also, the Pirates will be aware that Richmond, who are presently eighth in the League table (the Pirates are seventh), will be in understandably buoyant mood following their excellent 36-33 win at home to Bedford Blues last Saturday, when they recovered from a 17-33 half-time deficit.

The Cornish Pirates selection for their Cup opener at the ‘RAG’ (Richmond Athletic Ground) shows several changes in their starting XV from the one that ran out against London Scottish at home last Saturday. AJ Cant moves from wing to full-back with a fresh wing combination comprising Arthur Relton and Callum Sirker. For Relton, who is dual registered with Exeter Chiefs and played youth rugby for Penzance & Newlyn RFC, it will be his first appearance for the Cornish Pirates. Harry Bazalgette and Tom Kessell are the selected halfback combination, with the latter named to captain the team. As for the forwards, there are starts for prop Olly Adkins, hooker Max Norey, lock James Fender, and flanker Will Gibson, whilst the bench includes backrower Jarrard Hayler who is set to make his first competitive match appearance for the Cornish Pirates.

Speaking ahead of Saturday, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle has commented:

“This weekend is a window of opportunity for us to give certain boys game time who have been chomping at the bit for playing action and have put their hands up for selection.

“Having said that, the coming block of fixtures form a really important part of our development as we move forward, and there are areas of our game that we want to experiment a little with and push on, so in that light the Cup competition is very important to us and to our players.

“Looking forward to playing Richmond again, clubs naturally analyse their opposition, but as was the case in part last Saturday, for the Cup games the emphasis will be on ourselves. Our aim is to look to minimise the mental space in an effort to have a clear focus, plus we will also try out a couple of new combinations.”