The Cornish Pirates have what is now a mightily important British & Irish Cup Pool A match away to Newport at Rodney Parade tomorrow night. (KO 7.15pm).
When Newport won 25-23 away to Currie last week, former Cornish ‘Pirate’ Rhys Jones landed a match winning penalty in injury time. Besides Jones, two other former Pirates players based in Newport are Nicky Griffiths and Joe Bearman, who left the Pirates to join the Dragons in 2006.
On the comeback trail after recovering from a groin injury that threatened his career, Bearman made a cameo appearance for Pontypool on Tuesday evening, when he gained valuable game time as a replacement in a Welsh Premiership match against Cardiff.
The Cornish Pirates presently top Pool A with 15 points from their three games played. Leinster, who beat Worcester 38-23 on Sunday, are second with 14 points from four games, Newport are third (6 from three), Worcester fourth (5 from two), Currie fifth (1 from two), and Plymouth sixth (0 from two). The Pirates final game in Pool A is away to Worcester on the 26th February.
Speaking ahead of Friday evening’s match, Cornish Pirates high performance manager Chris Stirling has said: “We were pretty happy with our performance in the cup against Plymouth Albion, but we know it’s going to be really tough at Newport. They will bring physicality to the match and can also play with width, and we’re expecting a real battle.”
Cornish Pirates: R. Cook, W. Davies, D. Locke, T. Luke, R. McAtee, J. Bentley, J. Doherty, L. McGlone, T. Holmes, C. Morgan, B. Gulliver (capt), I. Nimmo, J. Currie, D. Ward, P. Andrew.
Replacements: R. Storer, T. Cowan-Dickie, R. Brits, M. Myerscough, K. Marriott, S. Winn, G. Pointer
