Pirates 26
Doncaster 23
Sunday 28th January FOR a second successive
season, Doncaster were left cursing the finishing prowess of Cornish Pirates winger
Rhodri McAtee. At Kenwyn 12 months ago, the 'Welsh Whippet' led the
Yorkshire club a merry dance, claiming a hat-trick of tries in a 43-26 victory.
Yesterday, McAtee was at it again, this time sealing the all-important score as
the Pirates edged to a much closer 26-23 triumph at Camborne. His scorching
burst down the left flank, created following a sumptuous break in midfield by
centre Duncan Roke, assured the 22-year-old of his 13th touchdown of the campaign.
In truth, though, he is unlikely to score a more important effort this season. Not
only did his second-half heroics help the Pirates record a notable league double
over the visiting Knights, but it helped Jim McKay's crew edge back into third
spot, hot on the heels of the league's frontrunners, Leeds Tykes and Rotherham,
the latter of whom still have to head for the Duchy in March. "In
the grand scheme of things, this was a really important win for us,"
hailed McKay at the final whistle. "It was a really interesting game and
both sides played their part out there. That said, in some ways we both cancelled
each other out. Both sides had done their homework on each other and in the end
it came down to a few little things which, thankfully, we managed to do well." Certainly
the Pirates began brightly enough, taking the lead inside two minutes when fly-half
Alberto Di Bernardo thundered over a 60-metre penalty to break the deadlock.  | | Bernardo
thundered over a 60-metre penalty | His opening salvo
was in marked contrast to opposite number Ben Gollings, himself a Cornishman,
who saw four of his attempted restarts fail to cross the 10-metre line. His afternoon,
however, would improve as would Doncaster's fighting spirit. Gollings levelled
the game up on eight minutes with a succesful penalty of his own, only for the
Pirates to regain the initiative straight from the restart when Doncaster were
penalised for holding on. Instead of kicking for the posts, Di Bernardo
targeted the left-hand corner and set the platform for the now well-rehearsed
Pirates catch-and-drive move. Hooker Vili Ma'asi sent the ball to the centre,
the drive was applied by the hosts, only for Doncaster flanker Jason Forster to
unscrupulously pull down the driving maul just inches from the line. Forster's
efforts did not go unnoticed as referee David Rose immediately banished him to
the sin-bin. With the man advantage, the home side went for a repeat performance.
This time, however, their efforts proved more fruitful as Tongan Ma'asi emerged
from the mass of bodies on the far side proudly clutching the match ball. Di
Bernardo's plundered the difficult touchline conversion, plus added penalties
on 18 and 24 minutes to put the Pirates further over the horizon at 16-3. Sadly,
they were unable to build on their early foundations and it was the Knights who
then dominated for much of the first period. No.8 Russell Earnshaw brought the
visitors back into contention when he drove over for a converted score eight minutes
before the break. Then Golliings penalised Iva Motusaga for coming off a scrum
too early to make it 16-13 at the break. A converted Gollings try - the
fly-half was given acres of room to dart through a static home defence, plus another
penalty - had the natives growing restless, but any concerns were quickly allayed
when Ma'asi burrowed over for his second of the afternoon, again from a line-out
move. Di Bernardo's conversion attempt missed the right post, but referee
Rose ordered a retake for the Argentinian after a clutch of Doncaster players
charged his effort a little too early. Take two, however, fared no better, as
this time his kick was pulled left of the uprights, even though the visitors were
happy to stay rooted to their line. The Pirates, though, were not going
to be denied and in a thrilling final quarter to the game, they gleaned their
reward with a moment of sheer magic. A superb turnover by No.8 Tim Cowley
allowed skipper Gavin Cattle the time and space to feed Roke, who in turn dropped
his shoulder, ghosted past two Donny tacklers, before offloading to McAtee to
scorch his way to the try-line. It was scintillating stuff from the two
former Worcester aces, one of whom is set to call time on his spell with the Pirates
at the end of the season. Roke has already confirmed that this will be
his last season in the black and red: a return to the Midlands beckons for him
and his family. However, he is determined to ensure his Cornish swansong finishes
on a high note. His experience helped galvanise the Pirates in the latter
stages as Doncaster looked to snatch a last-gasp victory. In the end, solid defence
from the home side prevailed. McKay added: "In terms of our character
and our resilience I'd give us nine out of ten. In terms of our performance, it
was more like six out of ten. We didn't quite execute some of the things we had
planned to do. "Our will to win was very strong and it got us through
in the end. The fact that we never gave up is a fantastic characteristic to have
in the side, but it's something we have worked hard on and we'll continue to work
on. "In games like this, you need people to stand up and be
counted. We had that today, which was very, very pleasing. I thought Duncan Roke
showed a real touch of class to hold and put Rhodri away at the end, plus our
catch-and-drive went very well and some of Alberto's kicking was excellent. Like
I said, that's a big win for us. Now we have to continue to build on that and
look to finish the season as strongly as possible." Cornish
Pirates 26 Tries - Ma'asi 2, McAtee; Conversion - Di Bernardo;
Penalties - Di Bernardo 3 Doncaster Knights 23 Tries
- Earnshaw, Gollings; Conversions - Gollings 2; Penalties - Gollings 3
Pirates:
A Winnan; R McAtee, D Roke, D Bell, J Hylton; A Di
Bernardo, G Cattle (capt); A Paver, V Ma'asi (N Makin 72), D Seal; H Senekal,
J Beardshaw; S McKeen, I Motusaga (M Evans 72), T Cowley. Replacements (not used):
J Moore, S Winn, L Vinnicombe, G Anderson, J Inglis. Doncaster:
A Carter; W Davies, B Hunt (M Woodrow 77), J Cannon, D Van Vuuren; B Gollings,
B Jones (D Scully 72); N Tau, S Boden (B Phillips 69), J Rawson (S Barretto 64);
G Kenworthy (D Cook 69), L Gross; O Cook, J Forster, R Earnshaw. Replacements
(not used): S Grainger, S Davey. Yellow Card: Forster. Referee:
D Rose (RFU) Attendance: 2,862. | 
