| Pirates Slip to Fourth | |||||||||||
Pirates
36 Waterloo 18 Pirates coach Jim McKay praised his side's endeavour as they returned to winning ways with victory over Waterloo. Having been wounded earlier in the season by the visiting Merseysiders - and still feeling the after-effects of their defeat at Otley the week previous - the Pirates ensured there was to be no repeat prescription, securing their seventh successive five-pointer at the Rec this term. Although it wasn't of the same vintage as shown in the home displays against the likes of London Welsh, Bedford and Exeter, McKay's men still had enough in their locker to overcome National One's basement boys without too much trouble. For much of the afternoon it seemed like the Pirates were happy to strut their stuff in third gear. Certainly that appeared good enough to contain the visitors, but it was when the Cornish club upped the ante - both in attack and defence - that they finally gleaned their true rewards. Adryan Winnan gave the home side the perfect opening, the Truro-born full-back claiming his second try of the season when he finished off good link play involving Matt Evans and James Moore to score on six minutes.
However, Waterloo 's response was impressive and within ten minutes they drew level, all-action No.8 Rory McKay charging down Alberto Di Bernardo's intended clearance to score by the posts. Winger Dan Loader added the conversion to put them ahead 7-5. Although visiting celebrations were soon curtailed as the Pirates hit back on 20 minutes. Up against a tough head wind, fly-half Di Bernardo opted for a kick to the corner with a penalty and from the resultant line-out, it was the home pack who steam-rollered their Waterloo counterparts back some 25 metres with a drive that ended in Chris Cracknell diving over for the first of his two tries on the day.
Di Bernardo landed the conversion for that score, but failed to repeat the feat when Sam Betty went over for his first-ever Pirates' try on 25 minutes, with the young flanker the beneficiary of another highly destructive driving maul.
Loader cut the deficit to seven points with a penalty shortly after - and that was how it stayed until the interval, although the Pirates could easily have added to their tally had they not tried to be too clever in some of their handling moves. A second Loader penalty three minutes after the restart helped briefly keep Waterloo in contention, only for the Pirates to once again kick back into action, with the home side re-engaging fifth gear to bring two tries in three minutes.
Duncan Bell was the first over, the Samoan centre latching on to a pass from midfield partner Steve Winn to glide in under the posts; then a good turnover by replacement prop Sam Heard allowed the Pirates to generate quick ball and expose a gap wide on the left, Di Bernardo feeding winger Jon Hylton to race in from 35 metres for try number five. Di Bernardo added the extras to both scores to put the home side firmly in control at 31-13. To their credit, Waterloo refused to lie down. Imposing prop Martin O'Keefe led their charge with a number of bullocking runs out of defence, while behind the acumen of skipper Freeman Payne offered numerous attacking outlets. It was therefore just reward that a sustained spell of pressure midway through the second half brought about some success for the visitors. Using their pack to prod themselves down field, quick hands along their back division created the opening for winger Ben Lyon to cross. Sadly that was to be Waterloo 's curtain call to the game. The Pirates, however, were far from finished and in a rousing encore to their Sunday matinee, it was Cracknell who dived over for a second try in injury time.
Winger Moore thought he had followed Cracknell's lead moments later, but his effort was ruled out for a forward pass by Winn. "We're pleased to get the five points," said McKay afterwards. "At the start of the day that was the main aim. It wasn't a great performance from us, but I thought the endeavour and commitment from the boys was pretty good today. "I thought at times our final execution and our handling let us down, but other areas of our game went really well, particularly our line-out and our driving maul. "There are obviously things to work on this week but, like I said, the important thing was the result and the five points, especially after last week."
Cornish Pirates 36 Tries - Winnan, Cracknell 2, Betty, Bell, Hylton Waterloo 18 Tries - McKay, Lyon Pirates: Yellow Card: Senekal Waterloo Yellow Card: Blyth Referee: A Rowden (RFU) Attendance: 1,769
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