Coventry 21 Cornish Pirates 28 24-04-2006
While many Cornish followers may have been concerned about the toll taken by Easter Monday's spectacular late win over Plymouth Albion, the Pirates showed their mettle by producing a high-quality, four-try display at a traditionally poor hunting ground to delight their Australian coach. McKay said: "Our endeavour was very good. It's not an easy place to come - we've lost our last two games here - but I thought both teams really threw the ball around a lot. That's the second week in a row that we've been involved with a really good spectacle. I was really pleased with the whole squad, it was a real good team effort." The Pirates made a determined start, and were unperturbed by the loss of fly-half Lee Jarvis to a groin injury during the warm up, scoring a try and conversion within six minutes as Tom Barlow stepped in capably at number ten. The Cornishmen went straight on the attack and kept possession through more than ten phases of play in front of a stretched Coventry defence. However, the Midlanders' resistance finally broke when Barlow's long pass found Wade Kelly on the right before he off-loaded to Rhodri McAtee, who burst between two men to touchdown in the corner. Barlow then set the tone for his afternoon by placing the tricky conversion straight through the posts to give the Pirates an early lead. To Coventry's credit, this opening salvo did spur them into action with crowd-favourite Kurt Johnson leading the fightback with his positive running from the right wing. Apoua Stewart also had a chance to pull back some points for the home side, but his handling let him down at the crucial time. The Pirates, though, were still looking dangerous on the counter attack, and it was no surprise when their second try of the half came after a well-worked breakaway. McAtee led the charge, carrying the ball 40 yards before being caught. But, controversially, referee Tim Beddow failed to spot a knock-on by the visitors, who subsequently added a second try through Tim Cowley, converted by Barlow, with 24 minutes played on the clock. Coventry's injury-ravaged side continued to work tirelessly and managed to get the scores level by half-time after an impressive ten-minute spell before the break. Johnson scored both tries with the second proving to be the try of the game, receiving a pass from Stewart he cut inside at pace on the scissors, before displaying his pace and power to run to the posts. Pirates-bound James Moore succeeded with both conversions to leave it 14-14 at the turn. The Pirates were again bright on the restart, scoring a third converted try after only a minute. A series of pick-and-go moves appeared to be going nowhere, until the diminutive McAtee took charge and stretched his way to the line. Coventry, however, refused to go quietly and restored parity on 65 minutes after Tom Johnson set replacement Dave Tiueti free to run the ball clean through from 30 yards out. Jon Higgins stepped up to convert after Moore had left the field with a leg injury. The Cornish side were far from finished and it was skipper Gavin Cattle who scored the decisive try after charging down an attempted Coventry clearance. His quick-thinking and sound handling left him with the straight-forward task of running the ball the final 35 yards to the try line unobstructed. Barlow completed a fine afternoon's kicking by converting to complete the scoring. Although McKay was pleased with his team's effort, ever the perfectionist, he still would have liked his team to have taken more from the game. He said: "In the end both teams will think that maybe they could have taken more chances - we certainly think that - and I think Coventry will as well." Coventry 21 Coventry: A Stewart; K Johnson (D Millard 55), D Sanders, K Geraghty, J Moore (D Tiueti 58); J Higgins, M Walls (C McGrath 50); N Treston (K Pulu 62), R Protherough (capt), P Bucknall (R Brits 71); D Campton, P Clapham; H Venter, B McNamee, T Johnson. Replacements (not used): R Chrystie, N Witkowski. Pirates: R McAtee (M Jess 57); R Welding, D Roke, W Kelly, K James; T Barlow, G Cattle (capt); D Parkes (A Paver 45), N Makin (V Ma'asi 64), D Seal (N Adams 57); H Senekal, S Hockings; J Bearman, T Cowley, M Evans. Replacements (not used): N Chivers, J Beardshaw, S Peters. Referee: T Beddow (RFU) |
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