Cornish Pirates Aim for A Strong Home Performance Against Nottingham

Photo: Cornish Pirates

Next up for the Cornish Pirates is a scheduled Round 10 fixture in the Championship – a third versus seventh clash – at home against Nottingham on Saturday 20/01/2024 (ko 2.30pm).

As the Pirates aim for a third league win on the trot, there are just a few changes from the team that started in the narrow victory recorded at Cambridge last weekend. In the backs, Will Trewin moves from right wing to full-back in place of the injured Kyle Moyle, and fit again Ioan Evans is named in the centre with Robin Wedlake returning to his more familiar position on the left wing. As for the forwards, lock Will Britton will make his first league start of the season and recovered from injury, club captain John Stevens returns at openside flanker.

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

“Firstly, looking back to last weekend we had a bit of ring rust having not played for three weeks, and although we put a good spell together and at the right intensity in the first half, we unfortunately dropped off in the second forty in terms of speed of breakdown and our collision. It again proved you can’t take your foot off the pedal, but we thankfully got the bonus point win.

“Now looking forward to taking on Nottingham, they are a well-coached side with a mix of young lads in there and a sprinkle of physicality in the pack.

“They have scored plenty of points, but have conceded as well, so for us it has to be as case of first and foremost putting in a strong performance at home, maintaining our attack, and imposing our game on them.

“We had a good result against Hartpury before Christmas but feel we need to be stronger again this Saturday ahead of another tough set of matches that follow.”

The Cornish Pirates full selection for Saturday is as follows:

Cornish Pirates:   15 Will Trewin 14 Robin Wedlake 13 Ioan Evans 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Matt McNab 10 Bruce Houston 9 Alex Schwarz; 1 Lefty Zigiriadis 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Fin Richardson 4 Will Britton 5 Steele Barker 6 Alex Everett 7 John Stevens (captain) 8 Hugh Bokenham.

Replacements:   16 Rhys Williams 17 Jacob Morris 18 Matt Johnson 19 Josh Williams, 20 Harry Dugmore 21 Ruaridh Dawson 22 Tom Pittman 23 Frankie Nowell.

Referee:   Hamish Grant

Assistants:   Calum Howard & Jonathan Healy

Official 4:   Paul Box

PR/Coach:   Andrew Vertigan

Match Day Sponsor:   Maen Karne

Match Ball Sponsor:   Premier Contractors Ltd

Match Day Collection:   By Bolingey Barbarians for Youth Causes in Cornwall

Tickets will be available at the gates on the day (open 12.30pm), whilst in the meantime they can also be purchased on-line. For further information please visit: www.cornish-pirates.com/tickets