Cornish Pirates

Earnshaw Picks Up The Pieces At Bees

Birmingham & Solihull player-coach Russell Earnshaw has reflected on an all-round bad day at the office for his team in Plymouth as he prepares for the visit of Bristol to Sharmans Cross Road this Saturday.

Earnshaw said in The Birmingham Post, “I’m obviously disappointed, especially as I know we didn’t play as well as we can. Plymouth played the way we were expecting them to but we made far too many basic errors.”

The Bees went down 33-10 and also lost former Redruth centre PJ Gidlow to an early injury. Hooker Ben Phillips also lasted less than 10 minutes whilst wing Mitch Culpin was stretchered off late in the game.

Yellow cards for Tal Selley, George Thomas and a red card for replacement prop Darren O`Reilly compounded matters further. Earnshaw added,

“When the scrum went down Darren got kneed in the face and reacted. I will need to look at the video before deciding what to do. We don`t have a huge squad but we will just have to get on with it.”

Coventry Bolster Squad

Buoyed by their opening win against Rotherham Titans, Coventry will add Tongan international fly-half Fangatapu Apikotoa to their squad tomorrow and are likely to hand him his debut at Goldington Road on Saturday against Bedford Blues.

John Cocker, a back row forward who has represented Tonga at 7`s level, will join the club later this month. However the Midlanders have abandoned plans to recruit Samoan centre Paletuatoa Toelupe after a change in employment regulations for players outside the Premiership.

Full story.. www.coventrytelegraph.net

Bristol Must Improve - Arscott

Tom Arscott has told the Evening Post that Bristol have to improve quickly if they are to be title contenders this season.

He said,

“We've got a lot of room to improve but credit to London Welsh, they put up a really good fight," said the 22-year- old. Luckily we came out on the right side with a win.”

The player scored one try and made another for Dan Norton before claiming the man of the match award. He added,

"London Welsh were really good and fought hard for the whole game. We had highs and lows throughout the game but overall it was a pretty good performance.

"But we've got a lot of room for improvement and a lot of room to build on this game."

Welsh Disappointment At Bristol Defeat

In the wake of their late defeat at Bristol, London Welsh head coach Danny Wilson told the Richmond & Twickenham Times of the huge disappointment in the Exiles changing room after the match.

He said,

“It’s a very, very disappointed changing room; we really feel we missed an opportunity today. For large parts of the game it was all us, we played some really accurate, high tempo rugby but didn’t finish when we needed to finish and in all honesty let in two very soft tries which were the difference on the day.

“The performance was creditable but in the end we’ve ended up being exactly what we didn’t want to be, plucky losers.

We lived in their 22 for a good 25 minute period in the second half and played some great rugby and came away with some points that we thoroughly deserved. But today is a little bit more about what we leaked and we leaked a couple of soft tries when we lacked a little bit of composure.

“After that try [Mackey] we had a bad patch where we ended up being deep in our own half, which we hadn’t being for a while. We made a couple of errors which handed them the ball and sides like Bristol will always punish you for that.

“We will go to Nottingham next week to win. If we reproduce the rugby we played today and have a little bit more composure we can really test them.”

Knights Got What They Deserved - Howells

Doncaster Knights director of rugby Lyn Howells told The Star that his team deserved to lose against Bedford Blues at Castle Park on Saturday.

He said,

"We got what we deserved. You can't hope to win games if you win good possession and then give the ball back to your opponents, which is what we did.

"I would certainly be interested in seeing what the error count was; it was certainly a lot higher than in an average game last season. We might have had several players making their debut, but that was no excuse."

Howells continued,

“Fortunately the things that we did wrong are easy to put right, but it was still a disappointing way to start the season. The players are very disappointed and rightly so."

"I felt that the forwards were on top in the set-pieces and and I was pleased with the back-three. I didn't feel that their 11-3 interval lead would be enough playing into the wind in the second half."

"I also thought that when we got it back to 16-12 that we were doing enough to go on and win the game. But then we gave away a penalty and we didn't work hard enough inside to prevent their last try."

Rayer Pleased With Blues Effort

Reflecting on a job well done in South Yorkshire Bedford Blues director of rugby told the club website,

“The win was important but we knew that it wasn’t going to be the end of the world if we lost. To get four points was very pleasing because you never know how things will go until the whistle goes but I certainly saw some positive things from us.

“To go to Doncaster, especially after last year’s episode, and not concede a try was top drawer really. We are pleased, but it is just one win and that’s all it is, there’s no way in the world that we can get carried away.

“We did what we had to do and it wasn’t pretty at times but we played the game and took our chances. We bombed one clear cut chance early on and I thought it wouldn’t be our day especially when we missed a couple of kicks.

“We scored the first try with a bit of luck but I thought that the other two finishes were fantastic. At half time we spoke about exploiting the space that was available to us which we did with the second try but the third was down to what Nick Walshe and the backs have worked on during training.

“Nick was very unfortunate to pick up the injury that he did but Will Chudley took his chance with both hands. Sometimes these things have a habit of happening and your hand is forced but we knew what Will could do and good on him.

“When Doncaster pulled it back to 12-16 there was still a good 20 minutes to go and nothing against Toops and Sacha, I just felt it was the right call to get Ben Lewitt and Chris Goodman on. It was a big call that could have back fired, but they are quality players and maybe this is the difference between this season and last.

“The players who came on all stepped in and gave us a solid background. It was great to be able to go to the bench at that point and Pritchard’s score was certainly crucial as it gave us some breathing space.

“I don’t think that Doncaster will be too happy with how they played and there were certain things about our game that didn’t go well. There were too many turnovers and we didn’t get past two or three phases but we stuck to the game plan and got our just desserts although the scoreboard may have flattered us a little.”

Jess Confident Of Good Times Ahead For Chiefs

As Exeter Chiefs prepare to meet Doncaster Knights at Sandy Park on Saturday, former Cornish Pirates wing Matt Jess has spoken of his optimism for the current season in the wake of their hammering of Moseley.

Jess told the Express & Echo,

"We said to ourselves before the game that we had to put a marker down and I think that was a great start.

We wanted to go up to Moseley and show what we've been doing and it's great to see us put 50 points on the board. This could be the start of a really good season."

Full story.. www.thisisexeter.co.uk

Albion Will Keep Feet On The Ground - Dawe

Plymouth Albion chairman of rugby Graham Dawe stated that his team will not be getting carried away by their opening day defeat of Birmingham & Solihull.

He told The Herald,

"It is very early to say whether there is potential for improvement because that might be our best performance of the season.”

He continued,

“You have to take into consideration the opposition; we don't know what level the opposition is compared to the rest of the league. So, we will have to wait and see whether or not the team can progress."

Full story.. www.thisisplymouth.co.uk

Hard Week Ahead At Titans

Rotherham Titans entertain Plymouth at Clifton Lane on Sunday and following their defeat at Coventry on Friday night are being made to work hard in order to improve.

The Star reports that the squad have embarked on four days of intensive training in a bid to iron out deficiencies in the lineout and at the breakdown.

Coach Craig West said,

"There were too many errors and we turned over too much possession. I don't think that we put together three or four phases all match. But I know we'll be competitive this season.”

Full story.. hwww.thestar.co.uk