Cornish Pirates 5 Jersey Reds 7

With no shortage of black and white flags flying about the ‘Mennaye’, the Cornish Pirates fell agonisingly short of celebrating St Piran’s Day with a victory.

In contrast, the visitors ended the game with smiles on their faces, after recording their first ever win on Pirates’ soil in six attempts.

It was bright and sunny, but also wet and sticky underfoot, whilst a strong westerly wind was always going to have an impact on the game.

Two players from each side were proudly reaching 50 games milestones for their club – Tom Duncan and Max Bodilly for the Pirates and the second-row pairing of James Voss and Pierce Phillips for the Reds.

The Reds, who actually wore blue, had an imposing and physically bigger pack of forwards, however the Pirates let technique do the talking to display early scrum dominance. Striving for overall advantage proved though a little more difficult, and it took until the half-hour mark before they made it into Jersey’s ‘22’.

Awarded a number of penalties, an opening score looked likely, but after opting for scrums close to the line the Pirates were unable to make applied pressure count. Indeed, a penalty was then signalled in favour of the visitors, who were able to kick to the safety of touch, for half-time to soon arrive with the scoreline reading 0-0.

A busy interval saw the Cadgwith Singers entertain with a number of Cornwall’s favourite songs, the Pirates under 9s and Redruth U8s enjoy their opportunity to play exhibition games of mini-rugby, and guest Nigel Melville make the 50/50 Draw. A former Wasps and England scrum-half, he is nowadays the Director of Professional Rugby for the RFU.

The first half didn’t lack for competiveness, and nor would the second. It was clear that this was going to be a low-scoring game, and it took until the 50th minute before the scoreboard operators were pressed into action. Pressing close to the Pirates line, Jersey’s loose-head prop Sean McCarthy burrowed over for a try, which was converted by fly-half Callum Sheedy.

As the half drew on it looked as if the Pirates were going to be ‘nilled’ for the first ever in the Championship. However, think it one moment, it was a case of the players then immediately responded to show that they were still up for the battle. Replacement scrum-half Mike Pope propelled the ball forward and wing Kyle Moyle gave chase to make the touchdown at the old Western National corner. It was just what the Pirates needed with 12 minutes still left on the clock, despite replacement fly-half replacement fly-half Will Cargill not surprisingly failing with the conversion attempt into the teeth of the cruel wind.

The score undoubtedly helped raise energy levels as the Pirates proceeded to sneak a winning result. Indeed, two catch-and-drive opportunities gave real hope to extend a seven games winning streak, but it was not to be. The line-out had faltered and kicking out of hand had been below par, in what was the first of back-to-back matches against the Reds. On Friday the two teams will meet again, in Jersey, in what will be the quarter-final of the British & Irish Cup. The kick-off is at 7.45pm.

The Cornish Pirates are still fifth in the league, just one point ahead of Jersey Reds, so both teams will be keen to continue their challenge to make into the top four when Championship action returns in two weeks time.

In the meantime, speaking after Sunday’s game coach Alan Paver said:

“The conditions were difficult for both sides but we didn’t get a grip on the match and Jersey deserved to grind out the victory.

“Our line-out and kicking game simply didn’t function well enough, but we’ll look to learn from the experience and continue to work hard and maintain our challenge game by game.”

Cornish Pirates: 15 Toby May, 14 Alex O’Meara, 13 Max Bodilly, 12 Tom Hendrickson, 11 Kyle Moyle, 10 Laurence May (Will Cargill 65), 9 Alex Day (Mike Pope 56); 1 Marlen Walker, 2 Jack Innard, 3 Paul Andrew (Jack Andrew 52), 4 Jake Parker, 5 Josh Caulfield (Dan Lee 56), 6 Alex Cheesman, 7 John Stevens, 8 Tom Duncan (c).

Replacements (not used): Luke Chapman, Bar Bartlett, Nicolas De Battista.

Jersey Reds: 15 Jack Cuthbert , 14 George Adair, 13 Jordan Davies, 12 Kuki Ma’afu, 11 Nick Scott, 10 Callum Sheedy (Lewis Robling 65), 9 Kieran Hardy (Joel Dudley 60); 1 Sean McCarthy (Jake Woolmore 54), 2 Joe Buckle (Jack Macfarlane 45), 3 Mark Tampin (Jake Armstrong 48), 4 Pierce Phillips, 5 James Voss (Uili Kolo’ofa’I 58), 6 James Freeman (c), 7 Gary Graham, 8 Nick Haining (Max Argyle 65).

Scorers: Cornish Pirates – try: Moyle

Jersey Reds – try: McCarthy; con: Sheedy

Referee: Simon Harding (RFU)

St. Austell Brewery’s Cornish Pirates Man-of-the-Match: Tom Hendrickson

Attendance: 1,535