Paignton VS Cornish Pirates Amateurs: Match Report

Heart & Character Earns a Bonus Point

Paignton 43 – Cornish Pirates Amateurs 24

By Phil Westren

For their final league game on the road this season, the Pirates Amateurs travelled to Paignton for a 3^rd v 5^th encounter in Counties 1 Western West.

The Pirates lost 19-15 at home to their Devon opponents back in December, and would lose again, although credit was due for recovering from a poor start and achieving a four-try bonus point.

After Paignton led 24-5 at the break, with a sole try for the Pirates scored by wing Dan-Rhys Evans, the second half proved a much closer contest, during which both sides scored 19 points apiece.

Try-scorers for the Pirates in the second forty were lock Ben Martin, skipper and centre Josh Semmens, and lock Stan Somers. Full-back Ben Wragg slotted two conversions.

Commenting after the game, Pirates Amateurs’ head coach Murray Westren said:

“From our perspective it was very disappointing that an unusual lack of sharpness enabled Paignton to build quite a lead. After that, however, the lads showed a lot of heart and character to score four tries and return home with an ultimately deserved bonus point.

Pirates Amateurs:   15 Ben Wragg 14 Dan-Rhys Evans 13 Morgan Holman 12 Josh Semmens (captain) 11 Tom Nicholas 10 Oscar Marr 9 Sam Carter; 1 Dylan Arthur 2 James Lambourn 3 Dave Penrose 4 Ben Martin 5 Stan Somers 6 Sam Carroll 7 Tom Hutton 8 Archie Pilcher.

Replacements:   16 Toby Osborne 17 Jake Hole 18 John Tyler.

Pirates Amateurs’ ‘Man of the match’:   James Lambourn.