| Moseley Sunk Without Trace | |||||||||
Pirates 48 Moseley 0 For a third time this season, Moseley sank without trace as the Cornish Pirates eased themselves into today's EDF Energy National Trophy fifth-round draw with a thumping 48-0 demolition at Camborne.
After a somewhat subdued first half - both on and off the field at the Recreation Ground - Jim McKay's side awoke from their slumber to inflict another hefty beating on their visitors from the Midlands. Having turned around 12 points to the good, courtesy of tries from Rhodri Wells and Rhodri McAtee, the latter converted by Alberto Di Bernardo, the Pirates were a reinvigorated outfit on their return to action. Whereas in the first half the Pirates were guilty of trying to over-elaborate even the simplest of set moves, the second period saw them adopt a more ruthless attacking approach, a ploy which was to bring them a healthy haul of points. Both Wells and McAtee crossed again for another try apiece, while Iva Motusaga (two), Duncan Bell and Steve Winn also found their way over the whitewash, while Di Bernardo slotted a further three conversions along the way.
It was certainly the kind of display the Pirates would have craved ahead of this Sunday's clash with visiting Doncaster, but their afternoon endeavours were spoilt with the late dismissal of prop Sam Heard for stamping. The former Redruth powerhouse had been on the field just three minutes when he decided to take the law into his own hands. Just what occurred on the far side of the field was difficult to tell, but his actions were spotted by touch judge Mark Summerhayes - and subsequently ignited a free-for-all among the opposing packs. Referee Richard Phillips engaged in a detailed conversation with Summerhayes and fellow official Nigel Higginson before reaching for the red card. Afterwards Pirates coach McKay refused to comment on the incident, preferring to keep any disciplinary action confined to the home changing rooms and an RFU hearing. "It's disappointing, but I'm not going to make any comment until I've seen the incident on video," said McKay. Instead the Australian was keen to highlight the efforts of his team. He added: "We set out to achieve a few objectives, which in the end I felt we did. Our first-half display was not the best, but our second-half display certainly was.
"Playing against a team from your own division is always going to be tough. In an ideal world we would have like to draw someone from not in our division, but that was how it was and in the end 48-0 is a good result for us. "In the Cup there are no second prizes, so we knew we had to come good today, which we did. Fair play to Moseley they battled hard out there, but I thought some of our boys really put their hands up today and it will make for a tough selection process next week." Certainly scrum-half Wells was among those to show up well, the Welshman grabbing his first-ever try for the club when he latched onto a pass from Motusaga to score in the left-hand corner after just five minutes.
It was the dream start for the Cornish club, but sadly they were unable to build on their early joy. Far too often they were guilty of over-playing the situation or simply taking the wrong option. Indeed, it took until the sin-binning of Moseley lock Paul Arnold just before the break for the Pirates to trouble the scorers again. With the man advantage, the home side piled on the pressure at a scrum, Wells fed the ball out to the back-line and it was McAtee who raced over for Di Bernardo to convert. Bell then lifted the home support inside two minutes of the restart with a third converted score, the centre burrowing his way over from close range.
The two tries in three minutes through the impressive Motusaga and Winn helped stretch the home side's lead to 29-0. Just past the hour, Motusaga claimed his second of the game, finishing off a sublime handling move from the Pirates, who wrapped things up with late touchdowns from both Wells and McAtee. Cornish Pirates 48 Tries - Wells 2, McAtee 2, Bell, Motusaga 2, Winn Conversions - Di Bernardo 4 Moseley 0 Pirates: Replacement (not used): G Cattle. Red Card: Heard. Moseley: Replacements (not used): B Buxton, D Hunter, A Binns. Yellow Card: Arnold. Referee: R Phillips (RFU)
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