Cornish Pirates

SOMETIMES the best way to gauge the true strength of a side is to see how they respond to a fall. Well, in the case of the Cornish Pirates, last week's home win over Bedford Blues may have offered us a few clues.

Having slumped to back-to-back defeats against Rotherham and the Exeter Chiefs, Jim McKay's side knew victory was imperative if they harboured hopes of a top-two finish this season.

With Harlequins showing little sign of weakness in their quest for an immediate return to English rugby's top table, it is the race for second spot which has captured the attentions of most National One observers in recent weeks.

Not that coach McKay wants it that way, the Aussie remarking: "In an ideal world I'd want us to be fighting for top spot, not second or third place. As far I'm concerned it's all about winning rugby games, but we've had a few slip-ups in recent weeks, so we lost a bit of ground on the top sides."

However, McKay's men responded to their double setback by producing a much-improved display against the visiting Blues last Sunday.

Their 26-21 success not only helped them avenge an earlier defeat at Goldington Road, but helped the Cornish club close the gap on the second-placed Blues to just six points.

McKay knows his side can ill afford any more slips in their quest to overhaul the Blues, who like the Pirates have still to tackle Harlequins one more time before now and the end of the season.

A capacity crowd is expected for the visit of the Mighty Quins to Cornwall next month, but before then the Pirates have much more important matters to deal with, notably ensuring they pick up maximum points against Nottingham at Ireland Avenue tomorrow.

That, according to McKay, will be far from easy, even though the Duchy's club claimed a 29-20 win in the league meeting back in early October.

"Nottingham, like Bedford, are a very good team, especially at home. They recently beat Plymouth at home and they pushed Harlequins pretty close as well," said McKay, who sticks with an unchanged starting line-up on Saturday.

"Saturday is another big tough test for us and it's another example of just how tough this division really is. Last week was a very good performance from our boys, but we need to keep that going again this week and for the rest of the season.

"We set ourselves a benchmark with that performance, so we can't really allow ourselves to drop below that."

The good news for the Pirates coach is that he can select an unchanged starting line-up after centre Shaun James passed a fitness check this week. The Welshman was forced off during the second half of last Sunday's clash with a head injury, but he is fit and raring to go alongside compatriot Kevin James in the Pirates midfield.

On the bench, McKay is boosted by the return to fitness of forward Tim Cowley, who has been sidelined since the 50-6 defeat at Harlequins back in November; Peter Ince is added in place of Vili Ma'asi as back-up hooker, while Sam Betty and Matt Jess are also included in the travelling party.

One notable absentee is lock Will James who, according to McKay yesterday, was a "late withdrawal".

Nottingham - who lost 30-21 to London Welsh last weekend - will include in their squad former Exeter Chiefs back Ben Thompson, as well as on-loan Northampton forward Mark Soden.

The East Midlands club also recently completed the signing of former Bristol and Pertemps Bees fly-half Mark Woodrow on a short-term deal from Italian club Napoli.

Pirates: D Roke; R Welding, S James, K James, R McAtee; L Jarvis, G Cattle (capt); A Paver, N Makin, N Adams; H Senekal, J Beardshaw; J Bearman, I Motusaga, M Evans. Replacements (from): N Chivers, M Jess, W Davies, T Barlow, P Ince, T Cowley, S Hockings, D Parkes, S Betty.