Cornish Pirates

POOL A

Bedford Blues 42 Cornish Pirates 18

Pirates match report www.cornish-pirates.com/match_reports

Bedfordshire on Sunday report www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Plymouth Albion 7 Bristol 38

Plymouth Albion now know that their season will end on May 1^st after this comprehensive home defeat at the hands of Bristol.

Paul Hull’s side rediscovered the try scoring form that had deserted them in recent weeks running in twenty-eight second half points whilst Albion can now do nothing to reach the semi-finals themselves.

Despite playing with the wind at their backs in the first half Bristol were limited to a fifth minute converted try by James Phillips and a penalty from Adrian Jarvis as Albion defended doggedly.

But Plymouth were undone within a minute of the second half starting as Junior Fatialofa scored his team’s second try. Jarvis converted and then repeated the process in the 49^th minute after Fatialofa scored again.

Minutes later Phillips secured the all important bonus point with his second try before Matt Hopper replied with Albion’s first try of the play-offs. Bristol wing Lee Robinson put the gloss on the performance with a fifth try late in the match.

Report www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Bristol view /www.bristolrugby.co.uk

Plymouth Albion chairman Dr Graham Stirling has written to club shareholders and sponsors to explain how Albion need to raise £100,000 in the next few weeks in order to survive.

Albion face severe cash crisis www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

POOL B

Exeter Chiefs 51 Doncaster Knights 15

The Chiefs destroyed the challenge of Doncaster Knights with a strong eight-try display at Sandy Park on Saturday.

It was the Chiefs biggest win against the Knights and to compound matters for the Yorkshire side they had flanker Adam Kettle sent off in the second half for violent conduct.

Fly-half Danny Gray got the Chiefs underway with an early penalty before Richie Baxter scored the first try of the match after nine minutes. Gray converted to extend the lead to 10-0 before an Ali Warnock penalty for the Knights after the home side had pulled down a driving maul.

Skipper Tom Hayes claimed a second try for the Chiefs with hooker Neil Clark going over shortly afterwards. But the Knights had the last word in an open first half with hooker Steve Lawrie claiming a try to leave the interval score 22-8 to Exeter.

Two Chiefs tries in the opening five minutes of the second half from Dollman and Jones sealed the match in favour of the home side. Trailing 32-8 Kettle’s three minute cameo as a replacement for the Knights came to an end as he received a straight red card after a clash with Gray, and the fly-half was soon on hand to convert a penalty try as Doncaster pulled down a driving maul on their own line.

After Nicky Griffiths chipped in with a second try for the Yorkshire side Exeter responded with two further late touchdowns from Jones and Simon Alcott.

Match report www.thisisexeter.co.uk

Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter told The Express & Echo, "I talked about hopefully being 20 per cent better if our line-out functioned and we organised a few things defensively and I think we were probably a bit more than 20 per cent better.

"At this time of the year it's 100 per cent about the attitude of the players. The players talked about being special before the game and putting a special performance in and they did. That showed more than any other aspect that we were in the right frame of mind, we were just mentally just right."

Full story www.thisisexeter.co.uk

Knights boss Lynn Howells told the Sheffield Star, "It wasn't surprising that we lost because we always knew that it would be a very tough game down there.

What is surprising is the size of the defeat against a side who had needed a late penalty to beat us 21-19 at Castle Park last weekend in a game I felt that we were the better side and deserved to win."

"The margin of defeat was a combination of the fact that we didn't play very well and Exeter looked like a side who are going for the championship.”

Full story www.thestar.co.uk

Nottingham 10 London Welsh 17

The Green and Whites were lucky to get a bonus point at Meadow Lane yesterday as they served up a poor performance against London Welsh.

Just a week after registering a comprehensive win against the same opponent at Old Deer Park Nottingham struggled with a catalogue of basic errors and never established any momentum in their game.

Dave Jackson put the home side ahead with a 5^th minute penalty but the Welsh hit back with a converted try from Aled Thomas after 20 minutes in a stop-start affair.

Thomas added a penalty early in the second half as Luke Sherriff was sin-binned but it took until four minutes from time for the next points. This time Paul Mackey breezed through the Nottingham defence for his side’s second try. Thomas again converted.

Only right at the end of the match did Nottingham show any hunger and their pack drove over the Welsh line with Tom Youngs claiming the try. Dave Jackson converted to secure a precious losing bonus point.

Director of rugby Glenn Delaney said of Nottingham’s performance, “The reality is we were poor from minute one to minute 79 and then we started playing. We had enough possession to have won the game but we came up against a side that were very abrasive, physical and passionate about their defence.”

"We made a lot of technical errors. We dropped a lot of ball, knocked on a lot of ball and were very poor. We have to be incredibly disappointed but happy to get the bonus point because I thought we were away from that even. I think that point might be very important at the end of the play-offs but we can't perform like that against Doncaster."

Full story www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

London Welsh to link with the Ospreys news.bbc.co.uk

POOL C

Birmingham & Solihull 19 Rotherham Titans 29

Rotherham Titans will be in the Championship next season after a comfortable victory at Sharmans Cross Road against Birmingham & Solihull secured top spot in Pool C for the men from Clifton Lane.

But a second successive defeat for the Bees has propelled them back towards the dreaded relegation place with a massive home clash against Coventry to come on Saturday.

The Titans scored the first points in this contest with a Mike Whitehead penalty before Rob Connolly`s try got the home side underway. But ill-discipline cost the Bees dearly as Alex Davidson and Simon Hunt were both yellow carded in separate incidents.

The Titans profited with a penalty try followed by further tries from Andrew Henderson and Nick Buckley. Whitehead converted all three scores to leave the Titans comfortably ahead at 24-5 after the first forty.

Anthony Elliott claimed a try back for the Bees early in the second half before Ryan Burrows made the game safe for the Titans with a fourth try after 70 minutes. Ed Binham`s late third try for the Bees proved to be no kore than a consolation.

Full report www.thestar.co.uk

*Moseley v Coventry
re-scheduled for April 24^th – kick-off 3pm.

The views expressed by High Tackle are his own.