Cornish Pirates V Southend Sunday January 18th
Kick Off 2pm | |  |
This
coming Sunday at the Recreation Ground, Camborne, the Cornish Pirates face a Southend
side who they will be playing against for the very first time.  As
the Pirates progress through the start of this new year there is still much to
play for, their aim to climb up the league and to also have a good run in this
EDF Energy National Trophy competition., which starts with this Round 4 tie. It
would be wonderful if the team could have a cup run that takes the club all the
way to Twickenham, but it's one game at a time, with due respect given to all
teams to be met.
Southend is the premier club in Essex and
they cannot be taken lightly. They have good links with Premiership outfit Saracens,
as is indicated by the fact that Kris Chesney helps coach their forwards. Former
club captain Ben Green is their Director of Rugby, and ex England fly-half Mark
Mapletoft is a coaching consultant. Presently 13th in National
Two, Southend have not had the best of seasons, but that in no way means that
they don't pose a threat. Their two league wins were against Blackheath (15-39)
and Waterloo (64-26), whilst in Round 3 of the EDF Energy National Trophy competition
they were 12-6 points winners at Barnstaple. They openly realise that Sunday will
(should) be a difficult ask for their players, but they also rightly feel that
on their day they could cause an upset. Southend Rugby
Club has a long and proud history dating back to 1870, which was a year before
the Rugby Union was formed in London. An Admiral Charles Barstow Theobald gave
a set of 'By-laws and rules' to lads playing football at the local Milton Hall
sports ground, and so the club was formed. It was called 'Southend Foot Ball Club',
and a young player of the time called Jimmy Cotgrove reported that "we trained
with paper chases!" Southend's fixtures in the years
leading up to the Great War included among other Wasps, Blackheath, Saracens and
Harlequins, and as the years passed by many players achieved representative honours
with Eastern Counties. Amazingly, the club only acquired its own clubhouse in
1957, an old works site office from the Mobil Oil Refinery which was purchased
for £85. By the late sixties Southend ran eight men's XVs and two Colts
sides each Saturday, and like us at the time they also good at 'Sevens'. Indeed,
in 1961 they reached the final of the Oxford Sevens, beating Harlequins, Loughborough
College and Leicester before losing to Wasps. The1978/79
season saw the club move to its present Warners Park ground, where they performed
well in John Player Cup games. Their most famous match was in 1980, when in a
televised cup match they only lost 6-12 against the might of Gloucester. When
the Courage Leagues were introduced in 1987, Southend found themselves placed
in National League 4 (S), playing the likes of Redruth and Lydney. However, by
the year 2000 they had tumbled to London NE3, which was a challenge to get out
of. That they recovered to be crowned Champions of National Three (S) in 2007
says much for Southend as a club, with Sunday's contest another challenge they're
sure to be up for. Teams
For Sunday | 
