Cornish Pirates

Otley 23 Pirates 19
November 25th 2006
Mark Stevens Report (pics DC)

Otley's famous wooden stand

Otley's famous pies & mushy peas

CORNISH Pirates coach Jim McKay admitted he and his side had been left "bitterly disappointed" after they slipped to defeat against Otley on Saturday.

Having seen off the Yorkshiremen 39-0 in the opening fixture of the season at Camborne, Otley gained sweet revenge in this return fixture, inflicting a third league defeat of the campaign on the visiting Pirates.

Early lineout on the sunny side of the pitch

To make matters worse for the Pirates, the loss not only saw them drop from the top of the division to fourth spot, but they had to play the final ten minutes of the match with 14 men following the dismissal of back-row forward Tim Cowley for a late tackle on Otley fly-half Simon Binns.

Yesterday McKay confirmed the Pirates would study the match video before deciding whether or not to appeal against the red card handed out by referee Terry Hall.

The Australian coach said afterwards: "We are bitterly disappointed with the result, but fair play to Otley they played very well and they deserved to win the game.

"We have a no excuse mentality and we are disappointed because we didn't deliver on the goals we had set ourselves before the game. We made too many mistakes during the match and if you make that many mistakes in a game, it's always going to be tough going."

With little to choose between either side in the early exchanges, it took until the 27th minute before Otley broke the game's deadlock, flanker Robin Kitching firing over a drop-goal.

Moments later and Otley added to their tally, Binns firing over a penalty after visiting flanker Chris Cracknell was yellow-carded for a technical offence by referee Hall.

Its a penalty

The Pirates, however, roared back in the closing minutes of the half as leading scorer Alberto Di Bernardo sent over two quickfire penalties, one of which also resulted in a sin-binning for home centre Paul Mooney, to level the scores at the interval.

A third penalty from the Argentinian playmaker just two minutes after the break put the Cornishmen in front for the first time, but again indiscipline from the visitors saw Welsh centre Steve Winn banished to the sin-bin after he flattened home skipper Ian Shuttleworth as he looked to follow up a chip kick over the top.

With the numerical advantage, Otley made the Pirates pay, lock Howard Parr driving over on 48 minutes to put the hosts in front 11-9.

However, home celebrations were quickly curtailed as the Pirates regained the lead on 51 minutes, Cracknell driving over for his second try in as many games.

But instead of kicking on, like they did against London Welsh the previous week, the Pirates allowed Otley to regain the initiative, the deadly boot of Binns firing them into a 23-14 lead, courtesy of four penalties, the last of which was given following Cowley's indiscretion.

Despite this, the Pirates were far from finished and in a rousing finale to the game they threw everything at their Yorkshire hosts.

Strong Pirates pressure saw home prop Justin Wring sin-binned with nine minutes remaining for a professional foul - and from the ensuing play, Chris Cracknell gave the visitors a glimmer of hope with his 3rd try of the season.

Joe's first try & Pirates last in the gathering dusk

With time fast rnning out, the Pirates went in search for that all-important winning score. Sadly it did not arrive and it was the Cornishmen who were left licking their wounds as they headed back down the motorway on Saturday evening.

Next up is this Sunday's visit of Waterloo, a side who inflicted the Cornish club's first defeat of the season at Blundellsands.

Revenge and a return to winning ways is high on the home side's wish-list.

Otley 23

Try - Kitching
Penalties - Binns 5
Drop-Goal - Kitching

Cornish Pirates 19

Tries - Cracknell 2
Penalties - Di Bernardo 3

Otley
I Shuttleworth (capt, X Andre 49); S Connor (A Livesey 74), P Mooney, J Tiffany, D Smith; S Binns, N Chivers
J Wring, D Sayers, S Barretto; H Parr, D Whitehead; R Kitching (A Monks 64), M Stockdale, M Maifea.

Replacements (not used): P Turner, B Steele, B Back, A Brown.

Yellow Cards: Mooney, Wring

Pirates
A Winnan; R McAtee, D Roke (J Hylton 66), S Winn (D Bell 60), L Vinnicombe; A Di Bernardo, J Moore; A Paver (capt), V Ma'asi, S Heard (D Seal 49); H Senekal, J Beardshaw; C Cracknell, S Betty (T Cowley 49), M Evans.

Replacements (not used): D Dawidiuk, J Inglis, G Anderson.

Yellow Cards: Cracknell, Winn.

Red Card: Cowley.

Referee: T Hall (RFU)

Attendance: 912