CORNISH
Pirates' head coach Jim McKay and his players dedicated their resounding 43-16
victory over the Exeter Chiefs to club captain Lodewyk Hattingh (pictured on the
left).
The 31-year-old South African No.8 has been advised by doctors
to give up
the game after undergoing brain surgery.
McKay said:
"Lodewyk has had an injury which may end his playing career, so
we did it
for him today."
Tries from Joe Bearman, Shaun James, Matt Evans,
Wes Davies and Kevin James sealed a memorable day for the Pirates, whose remainder
of the points came from the boot of fly-half Tom Barlow.
"We are
pleased with the victory. We played well in the first half and finished very strongly
as well," added McKay. "There were some very good areas of our play, but there
are obviously still some areas to work on and our discipline let us down a fair
bit.
"Exeter are a very good side. They have finished in the top
three or four
for the last five years or so for good reason, so they are
definitely one of
the dominant sides. We knew they would come out firing,
but we came out
firing as well, so that was good."
Commenting
on the Pirates' position at the top of the table, McKay,
ominously for future
opponents, said: "You work hard, so your results are an
outcome of what
you do. We are slowly building, but it's still early days.
We worked very
hard in pre-season and we are just starting to get going."
A crowd
in excess of 2,000 people was on hand to watch the cross-Tamar
encounter
and McKay was delighted to see so many supporters of the Pirates
make the
journey up the A30. He said: "I think the derby games are good
because they
bring out the best in both sides.
"There were a lot of people here
today, so I think derbies are fantastic.
Also it only took us three hours
to get here today, so for us that is a home
game! It is one of the closer
ones, so that in itself is pretty good. We
enjoyed that."
The
Pirates, though, take to the road again this weekend with the lengthy
trip
to Goldington Road to face Bedford Blues.
