Cornish Pirates

Plymouth Albion v Cornish Pirates
Saturday April 7th 2007 Kick Off 3pm

The games continue to come thick and fast for the Cornish Pirates, who tomorrow make the short trek across the River Tamar for a third instalment of action against local rivals Plymouth Albion.

With Albion having edged the opening league encounter 26-13 at Camborne back in December, the Pirates gained their revenge just two weeks ago when they defeated the visiting Devonians 17-9 in the semi-finals of the EDF Energy National Trophy.

That success story ensured the Pirates will be heading for Twickenham a week tomorrow, where Exeter Chiefs lay in wait in what promises to be an eagerly-anticipated Westcountry affair in the capital.

Before then, however, it's league points - crucial ones at that - plus local bragging rights that will be keenly contested at the Brickfields tomorrow (3pm).

Neither side will want to lose, particularly the Pirates who, in this past week, have suffered successive away defeats to both London Welsh (16-10 last Saturday), then (Bedford 41-10 on Wednesday evening).

With three games inside seven days, the Cornish club have been working overtime, both on and off the field. And with coach Jim McKay already looking to nurse his injury-hit squad through this week's three fixtures, the sight of Heino Senekal, James Moore and Rhodri McAtee all picking up knocks at Goldington Road in midweek, was probably the last thing the Pirates chief needed ahead of the Albion game.

The Australian, though, refuses to be too downbeat. Instead he prefers to look on the bright side and adopts a positive approach ahead of tomorrow's tussle.

	"We picked up a few more casualties at Bedford, but I'm not going to use that as any excuse in any way," said McKay yesterday. "We just have to crack on and prepare to front up again on Saturday, it's as simple as that. "We've known for a while that we were going to play three games in a week, so we've tried to keep everyone as fresh as possible and give others a go in the side. "We never like losing games, but we have to move on and prepare for the next challenge which, in this case, is Plymouth. Games between ourselves and them are always real arm wrestles and Saturday is not going to be any exception. Having lost twice in two games, our number one priority is to try and win this weekend and put things right." He added: "Albion are a very good side at what they do. They do the basics very well and they are a dangerous proposition. To win against them you really have to earn it."
Jim McKay

Defeating Albion on home soil, however, will be no easy task for the Pirates. Since McKay's men won at the Brickfields back on Boxing Day in 2005, only Exeter Chiefs have emerged victorious from the Brickfields.

Like McKay, Dawe is anticipating a close battle between the two Westcountry rivals. He said: "We will certainly work hard to try and prepare for them as best as we can. But like all Pirates, you never know when they are going to come over the horizon.

"We know it will be a tough game and we will be very wary of them as the last time they came to the Brickfields they beat us. They also beat us the last time we played them, so they are going to come in great heart. Revenge isn't something we are thinking about this weekend, this is a totally different game. It's a game we're looking forward to and it's going to be a good battle."

Whilst the Pirates will assess their walking wounded before finalising their side, Albion do make changes to the side that defeated Moseley last time out.

Albion's two changes come in their pack where Tim Mathias takes over from Gareth Evans in the front-row, while Mike Lewis comes in for injured Argentinian Federico Genoud, who it was confirmed yesterday will miss the remainder of the season because of a broken bone in his wrist.

Lewis will therefore pack down in the second row alongside skipper Ben Gulliver, while Irishman Tom Hayes will now switch to the back-row which is again missing the experienced Danny Thomas because of a neck injury.

Like the Pirates, Albion too have a number of players sidelined through injury. Genoud's addition to their list means they now have four players ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, the others being Martin Rice, Francisco Deformes and Colin Stewart.

Pirates (from):
A Winnan, J Hylton, P Jones, L Vinnicombe, S Winn, S Parsons, D Bell, D Roke, A Di Bernardo, J Moore
R McAtee, G Cattle, A Paver, G Anderson, N Makin, D Dawidiuk, O Hambly, D Seal, S Heard, H Senekal
J Beardshaw, J Inglis, S McKeen, C Cracknell, I Motusaga, S Betty, M Evans, T Cowley.

Adryan Winnan	Jonny Hylton	Lewis Vinnicombe	Steve Winn	Sam Parsons
Duncan Bell	Duncan Roke	Alberto Di Bernardo	James Moore	Rhodri McAtee
Gavin Cattle	Alan Paver	Grant Anderson	Nick Makin Capt	Darren Dawidiuk
Owen Hambly	Dan Seal	Sam Heard	Heino Senekal	Joe Beardshaw
James Inglis	Stan McKeen	Chris Cracknell	Iva Motusaga
Sam Betty	Matt Evans	Tim Cowley

Albion:
N Saumi; T Arscott, R Van Eyk, K Fisilau, N Sestaret; E Barnes, E Lewsey; T Mathias, J Owen
S Zimmerman; M Lewis, B Gulliver (capt); T Hayes, B Stroud, C Lowrie.

Replacements (from): G Evans, A Williams, R Oxley, D Smith, J Childs, M Newman, A Crucikshanks, W Neethling, S Vaenuku.