Cornish Pirates News Archive - Season 2006/07

SUMMER signing Gareth Steenson admits he is settling in well to life with the Cornish Pirates following his switch from National League One rivals Rotherham.The 23-year-old Irishman is one of a clutch of new recruits to jump on board Jim McKay's ship for the new season, which starts on Saturday, September 1 with a derby date with the Cornish All Blacks.

Several hundred Cornish Pirates rugby supporters turned up at the Mennaye Field on Friday night to watch a skills demonstration given by squad members. Before the display got underway, star new arrivals in Cornwall were introduced to the large gathering, a number of the players wearing the new 'Retro' 3rd shirt which was well received.

The Annual General Meeting of the Penzance & Newlyn RFC, held at the 'Westholme' clubhouse on Thursday, reflected on a year that was one of achievement and success.There was praise for all levels and for all personnel involved who have provided so much vital input from the minis upwards, with special thanks also for the tremendous support given.

The Annual General Meeting of the Penzance & Newlyn RFC, held at the 'Westholme' clubhouse on Thursday, reflected on a year that was one of achievement and success.There was praise for all levels and for all personnel involved who have provided so much vital input from the minis upwards, with special thanks also for the tremendous support given.

With the Cornish Pirates in the process of making final preparations for the new season, the ambitious club has secured loan signing deals which will bring Eniola Gesinde, Ed Williamson & Johnny Williams to the Duchy. The three are forward squad members of Guinness Premiership outfit Newcastle Falcons

MATT Evans is determined to return to action with the Cornish Pirates firing on all cylinders after the misery of a broken leg sustained in the final league game of last season.
"I'm really looking forward to the season," declared Cumming. "I can't wait to get stuck in. The English game is a lot more physical than it is in France and it's a lot more forward orientated.

The Cornish Pirates were delighted to be chosen by the RFU to host the Rugby World Cup as it starts its final trip around England before the 2007 tournament in France.
The trophy was the guest of honour at a schools festival at the Mennaye on Monday 16th July, part of the EDF Energy Schools Rugby Programme

The Cornish Pirates are to host a special event for Season Ticket Holders on 27th July to thank them for already breaking the Season Ticket record. All Season Ticket holders and participants of the new "Friends of the Pirates" scheme will all receive personal invitations to the Cornish Pirates Open Night, where they will have the chance to

Cornish Pirates stars Tim Cowley and James Moore officially opened 'The Body Shop' at the Wharfside Centre, Penzance. Goody bags filled with indulgent bath and body treats, as well as exclusive discounts, were given away free to the first 50 people who walked through the door

Season ticket sales show a dramatic increase as supporters come out in droves to buy their 2007/08 tickets. With the Pirates winning the EDF Energy National Trophy at Twickenham in April and securing a top five place in National One for the third season running, the dramatic increase in sales comes as no surprise.

A group of Year 8 & 9 pupils from Penair School in Truro, took part in rugby-related events during their summer activities week. The aim, in part, was to replicate the life of a professional rugby player.

Cornish Pirates player Adryan Winnan was the star guest, opening Blackwater County Primary School's 'Cornish Evening' held on Friday.

Cornish Pirates stars Tim Cowley and James Moore officially opened 'The Body Shop' at the Wharfside Centre, Penzance.

The Cornish Pirates are delighted to announce that we have been chosen by the RFU to host the Rugby World Cup as it starts its final trip around England before the 2007 tournament in France. The trophy will be the guest of honour at a schools festival at the Mennaye on Monday 16th July, which is being held as part of the EDF Energy Schools Rugby Programme.

The Cornish Pirates are to host a special event for Season Ticket Holders on 27th July to thank them for already breaking the Season Ticket record. All Season Ticket holders and participants of the new "Friends of the Pirates" scheme will all receive personal invitations to the Cornish Pirates Open Night

Cornish Pirates are pleased to announce that they have appointed a new Marketing Manager. Rob McEvoy, formerly of Guinness Premiership high flyers Sale Sharks has joined as the Cornish Pirates look to become Cornwalls Premiership Rugby representatives.

On Saturday (June 23) the Cornish Pirates took part in Golowan 2007's 'Mazey Day' Civic Procession, Took the EDF National Trophy to Camborne, and formed a guest crew for Newquay Rowing Club's 8th Annual Invitation Charity Gig Race, in aid of Children's Hospice South West

Despite the Tigers having a number of players unavailable because of World Cup commitments. The Guinness Premiership champions will be be bringing a strong squad to the Duchy for an important visit as they prepare for the new season.

Present at the official re-opening were Cornish Pirates representatives Joe Beardshaw, Rob Elloway and Adrian Edwards, with lock forward Joe given the honour of cutting the ribbon before business re-commenced.

The Cornish Pirates will be providing a crew to participate in this coming Sunday's 'Newquay Rowing Club 8th. Annual Invitation Charity Gig Race', which is in aid of Children's Hospice South West.

This June marks the tenth 'Everyman Male Cancer Awareness Month', the annual focus on prostate and testicular cancer an ongoing campaign to increase both awareness and funding for vital research into these cancers.

26-year-old Paul Devlin, who joins from Top 14 French Championship side Albi (Sporting Club Albigeois) is someone who has consistently played at a high level & is one of ten new outsides heading to Cornwall.

The Cornish Pirates had a major presence at this years Royal Cornwall Show which ran from Thursday through to Saturday June 9th

Pirates Sign prop Peter Cook from Harlequins & center Simon Whatling from Worcester.

Commenting on the latest two signings announced by the Cornish Pirates, Rod Coward, CEO, said: "Our two latest signings, Peter Cook and Simon Whatling, are both young, ambitious and have played in the Premiership

Current Guinness Premiership champions Leicester Tigers will be heading to the Duchy for a prestigious pre-season friendly with the Pirate on Saturday, August 4 at Camborne Rec.

Cornish Pirates speedster Rhodri McAtee was an important member of the Wales team that competed in the Emirates Airlines London Sevens played at Twickenham this past weekend.

As the Pirates near completion of their squad for the 2007-08 season, we can now confirm the names of those staying & those Leaving, plus the latest new arrivals

Having recently confirmed the signing of Canadian international Ed Fairhurst as a scrum-half, the Pirates have added Richard Bolt - another gifted number 'nine' - to their squad.

Richard is one of the country's most promising players in his position, who for the second year running has recently competed for England in the IRB U19 World Championships held this season in Belfast.

A new wave of schools taking part in the EDF Energy National Schools Rugby Programme has been announced today.

Over the next few weeks Cornish Pirates will work with pupils from five new schools - Porthleven School in Porthleven near Helston, St Maddern C of E School in Madron near Penzance, Mullion School, in Mullion near Helston, Bodgrigy Hayle School, in Hayle and Marazion School in Marazion.

Joe Beardshaw from the Cornish Pirates made the inaugural presentation of the Stephen Clark Memorial Cup to Ian 'Sid' Venner, captain of the St Austell 1st. XV.

Five members of the Cornish Pirates have been selected in the 'Rugby Times' 2006-07 National One Dream Team, Voted for by coaches from the division

Gavin Cattle, who led the Pirates to victory at Twickenham in the EDF Energy National Trophy Final, is named at scrum-half for the second year running, having received more votes than any other individual in their respective positions

Samoan winger Aliinu'u Koko and Canadian scrum-half Ed Fairhurst are the latest names to have been recruited by coach Jim McKay, who is clearly looking for an improvement on this season's fifth place finish.

The arrival of both Koko and Fairhurst takes the list of new additions at the Cornish club to ten and comes hot on the heels of last week's capture of Ollie Thomas and Nathan Kemp.

Stan McKeen from the Cornish Pirates has been selected for Canada's squad to compete in the forthcoming Barclays Churchill Cup competition.

Canada play Ireland A at Exeter on Saturday 19th. May and the New Zealand Maori at Franklins Gardens in Northampton on Friday 25th. May.

Steadily building up their squad for the 2007-08 season, the latest two players named to join the Cornish Pirates are fly-half/full-back Ollie Thomas and Kiwi hooker Nathan Kemp.

Salesi Finau from Tonga a centre/wing, Bruce Cumming a South African,lock forward

Plus Iva Motusage signs on again

COMETH the hour, cometh the man. Not for the first time this season Alberto Di Bernardo took centre stage for the Cornish Pirates.

Just as he had done in previous Trophy encounters against Leeds Tykes and Plymouth Albion, Di Bernardo left it late before delivering the perfect knockout blow to the Chiefs.

Ahead of Sunday's EDF Energy National Trophy Final between the Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs, the respective Captains Gavin Cattle and Richard Baxter went head-to-head on the Cornwall-Devon border

Both captains took to the skies in EDF's hot air balloon to showcase the new EDF Energy National Trophy.

Mark Rowe of Pentire Farm in Helston provided the first British asparagus of the year to supermarket giants Tesco and Marks & Spencer.

On Tuesday Mark was at the Marks & Spencer store in Truro to help drive local asparagus sales, as part of an in store promotion organised in conjunction with Flamingo UK

Gavin Cattle took time out from his preparations for the EDF National Trophy Final this coming weekend to help aspiring Pirates at the Mennaye on Tuesday.

Current and potential scrum halves from the U9's upwards were treated to a master class of scrum half skills by the Pirates skipper.

To the delight of Pirates fans, the announcement of players signing on again has confirmed stability in the squad for next season.

The suspense surrounding new signings is evident from the message boards & can now be broken with the news that Nick Buckley, Rob Elloway, Brian Tuohy & Gareth Steenson have all signed on with the Cornish Pirates.

Having provided players to coach at various schools within Penwith in recent months, the Cornish Pirates, with the support of EDF Energy and Premier Rugby Limited, held a 'Tag' Rugby Festival at the Mennaye Field on Wednesday.

The schools taking part in a 'round robin' set of matches were Alverton, Newlyn, Pensans and St. Mary's C of E, the boys and girls representing St. Mary's emerging as the overall winners from an enjoyable and successful afternoon's competition.

Promotion chasing Cornish Pirates and Rotherham 'Earth Titans' will lock horns for this eagerly awaited top of the table clash in front of the cameras from Sky Sports.

Sky, a leading global heavyweight broadcaster of live sports, will be providing live coverage of a National Division One club fixture for only the second time in the history of the competition.

The Cornish Pirates are delighted to offer a three match ticket deal to all supporters as the prospect of an epic EDF Trophy Final draws near.

Any person buying a ticket for the televised league clash against Earth Titans on March 18th will, by retaining their ticket stub, automatically receive priority to buy further tickets for the EDF Trophy Semi-Final against Plymouth Albion the following weekend.

lock forward Scott Hobson has been selected in the England U19s 22-man squad that will play their counterparts from Wales this coming Friday at Aberavon, kick-off 7.15p.m.

Following the Wales game, France will be in opposition at Henley on March 24, prior to the World Championships in Belfast during April

The Cornish Pirates will be visiting the Eden Project on Monday (March 5) to help celebrate the venue's St. Piran's Day celebrations.

Players and coaching staff will take part in a number of activities, whilst club merchandise will also be on sale.

Having just recently announced that Chris Cracknell, Sam Heard, Rhodri McAtee, James Moore, Heino Senekal and Adryan Winnan have pledged themselves to the Pirates cause, they have now been joined by prop Alan Paver, and the back-row pairing of Matt Evans and Sam Betty.

A special awards ceremony was recently held at County Hall for all schools that had achieved 'healthy status'. Unfortunately, however, some of the plaques did not arrive, including those due St. Ives Infants School.

playing star Rhodri presented the award that confirmed St. Ives Infants School to be officially healthy!

The Pirates have recently welcomed 'on board' two new and important back room members of staff.

Alan Smith & Kevin Curnow join the back room staff

Following their superb 18-17 points Round 5 victory at Leeds last Friday, it will be a return to Yorkshire for the Pirates to play Doncaster Knights in the quarter-final.

Match Date Confirmed: Doncaster v Cornish Pirates | Saturday 3rd March - KO 2.30pm

The Cornish Pirates are delighted to announce that six of the current squad have agreed new deals for the 2007/8 season, whilst a number of others are in the pipeline.

Signing on yesterday were:- flanker Chris Cracknell, prop Sam Heard, wing Rhodri McAtee, utility back James Moore, lock Heino Senekal, and full-back Adryan Winnan

Young people across the southwest are being invited to take part in an exciting multi media competition through the Playing for Success (PfS) scheme.
The competition aims to excite young people in the use of new technology and advance their skills in ICT through producing a multi media magazine

This week is 'National Farmhouse Breakfast Week', an initiative run by HGCA (Home Grown Cereals Authority) which aims to raise awareness of the importance of breakfast and to encourage people to support local producers.

Hooker Darren Dawidiuk has been selected for the 30-man England U20s 'Six Nations' 2007 squad.

We wish Darren, who has previously played for England Colleges at U19s level, all the best, should he be selected for any of the forthcoming matches, its also worth noting that he is the only player from the squad not associated with a Premiership club.

Pirates coach Jim McKay admits he and his side are looking forward to having another crack at divisional rivals Leeds after they were pitted against the Tykes in the EDF Energy National Trophy fifth round draw.

The Cornish Pirates Board is pleased to confirm the promotion of Rod Coward to Chief Executive of Penzance & Newlyn Rugby Club Ltd with effect from 1st January 2007.

Rod will join the Board along with Robin Turner in his capacity as Chairman of the Pirates Members Club, Martin Hudson and Dicky Evans as Chairman of the Board.

Scott Hobson, one of Cornwall's best young prospects, has been chosen in the England U19s squad for their match to be played against Italy U19s at Sunbury on Friday afternoon (5th. January).

THE Cornish Pirates have been handed a home tie against National One counterparts Moseley in the fourth round of this season's EDF National Trophy.

From Kenwyn To Camborne
Players at work rest & play - fans - friends - staff
The pictures you don't always see

The IRB Council has approved a change to the Law that governs the scrum from 01/01/2007

This follows a review of the scrum by the IRB Rugby Committee and its Law Project Group following recommendations made by the IRB’s Medical Committee.

The BBC report that London Welsh wish to join the Celtic League is given a firm rebuttal by Welsh's Peter Thomas

The 'Heineken Cup Trophy Tour' arrived in Cornwall on Friday. Its first official stop being Land's End.

The Cornish Pirates have two players playing 'Sevens' rugby in Dubai this week.

Rhodri McAtee has been selected in the Welsh 13-man squad for the first leg of the IRB Series. Sam Parsons, a member of the Academy team - who has previously played for St. Austell and Truro - has been called up to England's 'St. George Samurai' squad.

Everyone who has watched the Cornish Pirates these past couple of seasons will have been mightily impressed with the skill and commitment shown by this modest lock forward. Currently on Rugby World Cup duty with Namibia, Heino was in his country's team that beat Morocco 25-7.

In the last few weeks - with the Pirates in the top six of the National 1 - there has been considerable opinion and media interest in the issue of promotion to the Premier League.

Everyone who has watched the Cornish Pirates these past couple of seasons will have been mightily impressed with the skill and commitment shown by this modest lock forward. Currently on Rugby World Cup duty with Namibia, Heino was in his country's team that beat Morocco 25-7.

When the Centre Manager of the Pirates' Learning Zone needed a keen reader and role model for a planned reading project he didn't have any problem finding a player who is renowned for his interest in reading.

We are delighted to introduce Rod Coward as the new GM, having retired to Cornwall from his position as Chief Superintendent of the West Yorkshire Police. Two other new faces - both local boys - are Rudi Grenfell and Geoff 'Dotcom' Nicholas.

GONE are the days when the best stock in Cornish rugby was being uprooted and carted off to pastures new further up the line. These days, the Duchy's blossoming talent are opting to remain closer to home and enrolling in the local academy to hone their rugby skills for the future.

With the Cornish Pirates looking to add to their options in the tight five, it is expected that the arrival on Friday of beefy Fijian international Ravuama Samo provides someone who should make quite a considerable impact.

The Cornish Pirates have bolstered their squad with the addition of towering second-row forward James Inglis from Guinness Premiership side NEC Harlequins.

The Cornish Pirates took a leading role in a unique ‘Community Awareness Day’ that took place at the Recreation Ground, Treneere Estate, Penzance, on Friday.

In the latest step to drive and improve social conditions in an area recognised as Cornwall’s most deprived neighbourhood, residents were given the chance to work with official agencies by getting involved and learning more about the ‘Treneere Together Partnership’ that was created last April.

Players from the Pirates had a glimpse of Cornwall’s heritage when they visited the Geevor Tin Mine Museum & Heritage Centre on Monday.

Joining them was John Gendall, a former miner at Geevor for 19 years, who has also been a stalwart “Pirate” and Life Member of the club.

In conjunction with the Pirates Learning Zone, a number of Cornish Pirates players have responded to support an initiative developed and promoted by the National Literacy Trust.

Hooker Nick Makin was very keen to get involved when he heard about the project, the aim being to raise boys' interest in reading by promoting positive role models.

Sponsored kindly by ‘ALDI’, a two-day ‘Rugby Camp’ took place at the Carn Brea Leisure Centre this week. The youngsters, who were drawn from around the Duchy, thoroughly enjoyed participating in a range of rugby activities organised by James Bennett, from the Leisure Centre, and Peter Richmond and Rob Bowden from the Pirates.

Cornish Pirates Matt Evans and Owen Hambly took 'pride in the shirt' to a new extreme yesterday when they appeared at Penzance's PZ Gallery with the club's new livery, literally, painted on to their bare chests.