Pirates v Gwent Dragons

CORNISH PIRATES 6 NEWPORT-GWENT DRAGONS 20

THE Cornish Pirates continued their countdown to the start of the new season by putting in a creditable display against Celtic League opponents Newport-Gwent Dragons at the Recreation Ground.

Although Jim McKay’s side slipped to defeat against the Welsh side, who included former Pirates Joe Bearman and Matt Jess in their squad, the Aussie coach will have taken plenty of positives from this performance.

With Otley first up on September 3 at Camborne, things are seemingly progressing nicely for the Cornish club who offered a great deal more in this match than the two penalties slotted by summer signing Alberto Di Bernardo.

Had McKay’s men made more of their second half dominance, the final scoreline could well have been much closer. Some over exuberant attacking, coupled with early season rustiness and some excellent defence from the Dragons, ensured it was a frustrating afternoon for the Pirates.

However, speaking after the game – which was the Pirates first-ever at their new Camborne base – McKay insisted he was “encouraged” by what he had seen and that they were more positives than negatives to take out of the fixture. “It was a very good trial game for both sides,” said the Australian. “Obviously the Dragons are a strong outfit and it was a very good hit out for us. That said, I thought we brought a good intensity to the game and it was much better than last week.” “We set ourselves a few targets today and overall I think we hit quite a lot of them,” added McKay.

“I’m pleased with how a few of the guys went, we brought a lot to the game and our defence in the main was good, I’m just a little disappointed with a few silly errors that meant we leaked a couple of soft tries.

“Overall, though, we created chances and put pressure on them, which was the aim before the game. Ideally I would have liked us to have converted our pressure into a few more points, but we’ve got two weeks to work on that and we’ll see how we go after that. I would say it was a six out of ten performance from us, but there are things that we can build from, which is good.”

A slow start from the Pirates gifted the Dragons an early lead, given to them when flanker Jamie Ringer crossed from a line-out in the right-hand corner, fly-half Ceri Sweeney adding the difficult touchline conversion.

The Pirates, though, hit back and almost reduced the arrears when Di Bernardo’s cross-field kick was just too long for winger Jon Hylton, thankfully Richard Fussell was on hand to clear up the danger for the Welsh side.

However, two penalties from the impressive Di Bernardo reduced the deficit to a point at the break, before the visitors struck early in the second half with a Sweeney penalty and then a Wyatt try just three minutes later. The Pirates did their best to find a way back into the game, but some stout defending from the Welshmen kept them at bay during a frantic last quarter of the game. Then with time all but up, the Celtic League side wrapped up victory when they turned defence into attack, Jess gathering a loose kick from Di Bernardo wide on the left, before lobbing the ball over the head of Hylton and winning the race to the line to score.

Pirates:
D Roke (L Vinnicombe h/t); R McAtee, H Barrett, S Winn (D Bell h/t), J Hylton; A Di Bernardo, R Wells (J Moore 71); A Paver, V Ma’asi, S Heard (D Seal h/t); J Beardshaw (S Hobson 72), H Senekal; T Cowley, S Betty, S McKeen. Replacements (not used): S Parsons, O Hambly, M Rawlings.

Penalties – Di Bernardo 2

Dragons:
A Thomas (A Brew 46); G Wyatt, N Brew (G Hall 66), A Smith (S Stewart 15, C Warlow 59), R Fussell (M Jess 46); C Sweeney, G Baber (A Walker 66); A Black, S Jones (B Daly 46), L Harrison (G Robinson 60); B Griffiths (A Hall 60), P Sidoli; J Bearman (L Evans 72), J Ringer (J Harris 66), N Fitisimanu (C Charvis 46).

Tries – Ringer, Wyatt, Jess; Conversion – Sweeney; Penalty – Sweeney

Yellow Card: Harris

Referee: N Williams (RFU)