Cornish Pirates

Cornish Pirates 34 - 5 (10 - 5) Bedford
October 22nd 2006

THE Cornish Pirates have set their sights on the summit of National League One after they blew aside the challenge of Bedford at the Recreation Ground on Sunday.

A storming second-half show from Jim McKay's side helped lift the Pirates to second in National League One, just four points behind League leaders Rotherham, who they face in a fortnight's time.

Yesterday's five-point maximum was just reward for a Pirates side, who having weathered an early storm from the Blues, then set about dismantling their visitors with a ruthless display of forward momentum.

The home pack ravaged their Bedford counterparts for large parts of the game (Pic. Big Brian)

The home pack ravaged their Bedford counterparts for large parts of the game, while behind the Pirates' back division were allowed to slice open the Blues rearguard with some ever-so fancy footwork.

Not that it was so easy during the opening 40 minutes of yesterday's tussle at Camborne. Bedford - who had arrived in the Duchy with just one defeat to their name - certainly started brightly enough, stunning the home faithful when winger Mike Staten fly-hacked his way to a 16th-minute try to break the game's deadlock. However, that score merely acted as the trigger the Pirates needed to fire themselves into contention. Indeed, by the half-hour mark McKay's men had found their gear, particularly at scrum-time, where the home eight shunted the Blues left, then right, then decisively on their backsides.

(Pic. Big Brian)

The pressure was clearly mounting and on 32 minutes it finally told when Gareth Copsey lost patience with Bedford's blatant attempts to collapse a series of close-in scrum, the referee having little hesitation in running under the posts for a penalty try, which fly-half Alberto Di Bernardo duly converted for a 7-5 lead.

McKay's men had found their gear, particularly at scrum-time (Pic. Big Brian)

Two minutes later and Di Bernardo was adding to his tally, punishing Staten's off-the-ball shoulder charge with a penalty that the Bedford wing was then able to admire from the comforts of the touchline sin-bin.

A second Di Bernardo penalty just after the restart extended the home side's lead to 13-5, before the Pirates cut loose with a devastating spell of running rugby.

A rampaging break in centre field from winger Lewis Vinnicombe created a gap in the Bedford defence - and when the ball was recycled through forwards Alan Paver and Iva Motusaga, there was No.8 Matt Evans to gallop over for a second try, again converted by Di Bernardo.

(Pic. Big Brian)

Four minutes later and the home support were on their feet once more, this time Welshman Rhodri McAtee the beneficiary as he ghosted his way over following some slick handling from the hosts.

Di Bernardo bagged the extras to that score, then plundered another two when referee Copsey awarded a second penalty try on 68 minutes, again given after the Bedford scrum creaked under the pressure of the Pirates' pack. Although that completed the scoring for the game, the Pirates still threatened in the latter stages, Adryan Winnan and Stan McKeen linking up to almost send Duncan Roke over in the right-hand corner. Despite securing their fourth maximum points-haul at home this season, coach McKay had a somewhat mixed view of his side's display at the final whistle. "I was pretty annoyed with our first-half display, we started very slowly and we didn't do anything of the things that we set out to do," said the Australian.

(Pic. Big Brian)

"It was only our scrummage and our defence which kept us in the game. But we spoke about it at half-time, changed a few things round and we were much better in the second half.

"We adapted much better to the conditions after the break and it meant we had much more control of the ball. When we had the ball, like we did, we caused them lots of problems."

McKay admitted the result was the ideal boost ahead of this weekend's Westcountry derby with Exeter Chiefs, but added: "The scoreline today was nice, but we are very much performance orientated. In other games we may not be so lucky with the result if we only really play for 30, 40 minutes. For now we'll enjoy this win, but tomorrow we'll start focusing on Exeter, which will be another tough game for us."

Meanwhile, Pirates' supporters were yesterday given their first glimpse of the club's two new signings - James Inglis and Fijian international Ravuama Samo.

Ravuama Samo	James Inglis

Cornish Pirates 34
Tries - Penalty Tries (2), Evans, McAtee
Conversions - Di Bernardo (4); Penalties - Di Bernardo (2)

Bedford Blues 5
Try - Staten

Pirates:
A Winnan; R McAtee (H Barratt 58), D Roke, D Bell (S Winn 69), L Vinnicombe; A Di Bernardo (J Moore 80)
G Cattle (capt); A Paver, V Ma'asi (O Hambly 77), S Heard (G Anderson 69); H Senekal
J Beardshaw (S Hobson 77); S McKeen, I Motusaga (T Cowley 69), M Evans.

Bedford:
B Patston (C Moir 61); M Staten, O Dodge, M Allen (capt), J Pritchard; R Broadfoot
D Malone (K Dickson 31, Moir 57-61); M Volland (B Alexander 64), C Johnson (C Whitehead 57)
J Graham (D Cole 33); J Phillips (M Comb 69), A Brenton; N Strauss, S Harding, B Pienaar (A Kettle 64)

Yellow Card: Staten

Referee: G Copsey (RFU).

Thanks to Big Brian for some great action shots