Cornish Pirates

Semi-Final Draw
Bristol v London Welsh – Friday May 7^th – 7.45pm
Exeter Chiefs v Bedford Blues – Saturday May 8^th – 3pm

Relegated to National One (*subject to final ratification by the RFU) Coventry

POOL A

Cornish Pirates 15 Bristol 60

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

Bristol viewpoint www.thisisbristol.co.uk

Bedford Blues 35 Plymouth Albion 19

The Blues sealed their semi-final berth after coming from behind to beat Plymouth Albion at Goldington Road. The visitors defended well and led 19-16 until Sacha Harding broke through for the Blues ten minutes from time.

Following Myles Dorrian`s penalty Sione Tu`ipulotu gave Albion an early lead with a converted try before Ollie Dodge touched down for the Blues on 14 minutes. Dorrian converted and then exchanged penalties with Albion’s Alex Davies to give the Blues a 13-10 lead.

But Davies struck three sweet place kicks before the break for Albion who despite losing Keni Fisilau to the sin bin held a deserved 19-13 lead at the interval.

Bedford dug in during the second half and cut out the errors which had cost four penalties. Hopper and Gibson remained dangerous for Albion with the ball in hand but once Brad Davies had cut the arrears to three points with a penalty on the hour, it was all Bedford.

Harding profited from a catch and drive move with Bedford’s second try after 71 minutes before further late scores from Dodge and Taylor put a gloss on the final score.

Full report and Blues reaction www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk

Former Pirate James Owen sad to end career with loss www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

POOL B

Doncaster Knights 14 London Welsh 31

Doncaster’s season ended in the first forty minutes at Castle Park as the Welsh ran in three tries to lead by twenty points at the break.

The Knight still nursed slim hopes of making the semi-finals before the game but were undone after just 8 minutes as prop Chris Whitehead surged over the home line.

After a mass brawl mid-way through the half involving all of the players on the pitch London Welsh increased their lead with a second try through Errie Claassens. Minutes later Dominic Shabbo fed Paul Sampson who raced down the right wing to score. Thomas converted.

Thomas increased the lead to 23-0 with a second penalty after 53 minutes before Doncaster rallied and took control of territory and possession as their pack began to rumble.

Flanker Neil Cochrane scored the first home try and then looked odds-on for a second only for referee Rob Debney to give a penalty try instead. Brooks converted both efforts.

But the final word fell to the visitors as Claassens broke from deep with five minutes to go and fed Sampson for his second try of the afternoon. Thomas added the extras.

Knights boss Lynn Howells told the Sheffield Star: “Playing nine games in a month earlier in the year has caught up with us in the last couple of weeks. You could see that in last week's British & Irish Cup semi-final against Cornish Pirates. The players were tired and it was the same today.

"We lost our first six league games of the season and we were always playing catch-up. So to make the play-offs, and to still be in with a chance of making the semi-final in the last pool game, reflects great credit on the players. We needed to beat them by more than eight points and whilst we knew it was going to be difficult we thought we had a chance going into the game.

"They were the better team in the first half but had we come in 13-0 down we might have been in with a shout because we won the second half 14-11; it was the converted try just before half-time which killed us off. They are a good all-round side and have added a bit of extra physical presence in the forwards from early season.”

Exeter Chiefs 53 Nottingham 10

Exeter marched emphatically into the semi-finals with a dominant seven try display against a disappointing Nottingham side.

The visitors needed to win well at Sandy Park to guarantee a place in the semi-finals but fell behind early on as Neil Clark seized on a Tom Hayes charge down for the opening try with just two minutes played.

Steenson converted and added a penalty before Nottingham conceded a penalty try to make matters even worse. Dave Jackson attempted to steady the ship with a 22^nd minute penalty but a converted try from Tui and Steenson`s second penalty left the game out of reach of Nottingham as they trailed 27-3 at half-time.

Johnson and Jess just added to the pain for the Green and Whites with early second half tries before Foster and Dollman chipped in with two more.

A late penalty try for Nottingham converted by Jackson was nothing more than a consolation.

Match report www.thisisnottingham.co.uk

Chiefs wary of Bedford threat www.thisisdevon.co.u

POOL C

Coventry 12 Rotherham Titans 38

Coventry’s troubled stay in the Championship ended with a whimper at the Butts Park Arena as they were thrashed by Rotherham.

Despite scoring the opening try through Mike Walls after just seven minutes Coventry didn`t add to their points tally again until the dying seconds of the game. By that time Rotherham had notched six tries of their own and the game was well and truly lost for the Midlanders.

Peter Swatkins scored the first try for the Titans after 21 minutes before Kleeberger and O`Donnell claimed two more just before half-time to leave the home side trailing 17-5.

Coventry rallied after the break but were again undone after 55 minutes with Jon Feeley scoring from close range. Tinus Du Plessis then raced sixty metres for try number five and centre Tom Allen claimed a sixth as the Titans completed a twenty-one point haul in just six breathless minutes.

Louis McGowan scored Coventry’s final try in the Championship right on full time with Tommy Hayes converting.

Report www.coventrytelegraph.ne

As Coventry face life in Level 3 and a £300,000 cut in RFU funding Phil Maynard told the Coventry Telegraph where it had all gone wrong for his team www.coventrytelegraph.net

Coventry board to discuss Plan B www.coventrytelegraph.net

Titans expected to confirm Andre Bester as new boss www.thestar.co.uk

Moseley 34 Birmingham & Solihull 38

The Bees condemned themselves to another season of struggle in the Championship as they sneaked past Moseley to win at Billesley Common but in truth it didn`t actually matter as rivals Coventry imploded just down the A45.

The Sunday Mercury reports: “Moseley weren’t giving any help and not only scored more tries than their opponents – six to five – they actually led with more than an hour gone.

Moseley centre Callum MacBurnie scored four of them, his first four for the Red and Blacks, but it was Bees’ flying wingers who were not to be denied.

Simon Hunt grabbed two tries – and a personal haul of 23 points – and Anthony Elliott bagged the winner with 12 minutes to go.

Rob Connolly and Leo Halavatau also crossed for the Solihull side while Mike Gillick and James Rodwell joined MacBurnie over the line.

But for all Hunt’s magic with ball in hand it was his work with the boot that proved the difference.

While Moseley missed four of their six kicks at goal, Hunt landed six of his eight in yet another outstanding display of accuracy. And while Earnshaw was keen to name Halavatau as his player of the season, many others would not be able to see past the phenomenal Hunt.”

Full story and reaction www.sundaymercury.net

Moseley fly-half Tristan Roberts wants a full-time deal after being released by his parent club Gloucester www.sundaymercury.net

Relegation Pool C
	Team	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	For	Against	Bonus	PTS
1	Rotherham Titans	6	5	0	1	188	1116	7	27
2	Moseley	6	2	0	4	153	132	8	16
3	Beesl *-2pts	6	3	0	3	158	169	3	13
4	Coventry Relegated	6	2	0	4	82	164	2	10

The views expressed by High Tackle are his own.