THE Cornish Pirates maintained their
pursuit of both Harlequins and Bedford at the top of National League One by claiming
their first-ever win away to the Pertemps Bees.
Having been trounced
50-17 two seasons ago, the Pirates were again defeated by the Midlanders last
term when they went down 33-12. These days, however, the Cornishmen are a much
tougher proposition and so it proved.
Their forward supremacy laid
the foundations for this victory, although sloppy defence later in the game allowed
the Bees to set up an unexpectedly tense finale, before on-loan hooker Chris Morgan
wrapped up proceedings.
Star performer for the visitors was former
Bee Gavin Cattle, who weighed in with two tries, plus provided the opening for
Morgan to confirm the five-point success. Cattle claimed the individual plaudits
post match, but ultimately it was team effort which sealed the Pirates sixth win
of the campaign.
In an opening half in which the Pirates dominated
in the set-piece, the only real surprise was that their lead was only 14-3 at
the turn. The imposing pairing of Will James and Joe Beardshaw dominated the line-outs,
while in the scrums Nick Adams and Alan Paver destroyed their opposite numbers.
Converted scores from Cattle and winger Matt Jess in a three-minute
spell had the Pirates in control, while all the hosts could muster in reply was
a Ben Harvey penalty.
Despite losing prop Adams to the sin-bin, the
Pirates were still able to add further tries through the impressive Cattle and
No.8 Tim Cowley - who was making his first return since a rib injury.
In
between Dave Knight claimed an opportunist try for the home side when he latched
onto the ball after Harvey 's penalty chance had struck the uprights.
Harvey
added the conversion to Knight's score, then bagged the extras to further tries
from Nick Baxter and Tom Beim as the Bees produced a late charge.
However,
a Lee Jarvis penalty helped calm the visiting nerves, before Cattle's burst up
the touchline set up Morgan for the try that denied the Bees a bonus point.
Pertemps Bees 24
Tries - Knight, Beim, Baxter; Conversions
- Harvey 3; Penalty - Harvey .
Cornish Pirates 36
Tries
- Cattle 2, Jess, Cowley, Morgan; Conversion - Barlow; Penalty - Jarvis.
Pertemps Bees: D Knight; T Beim, A Billig (N Baxter 37), M Davies, A Takarangi;
T Walsh, B Harvey; A Le Chevalier (R Leilau 70), M Miles (L Wordley 44), M Long
(A Olver 31), A Davidson (B Hughes 57), E Orgee (capt), W Matthews, C Trayhern,
D White (J Jenner 64).
Cornish Pirates: W Davies; R Welding, D Roke
(W Kelly 31), S James, M Jess; T Barlow (L Jarvis 72), G Cattle; A Paver, N Makin
(V Maasi 59), N Adams (D Parkes 45), W James, J Beardshaw (S Hockings 77), J Bearman
(capt), C Morgan, T Cowley.
Referee: C Sharp ( Yorkshire ).
