Cornish Pirates

British & Irish Cup

Saturday 13th February 2010
KICK OFF 3PM

Phil Westren's Preview

The Cornish Pirates have named a strong side for their visit to Plymouth Albion in the British & Irish Cup competition on Saturday.

Following the Championship loss at home to Exeter Chiefs last weekend, scrum-half and skipper Gavin Cattle, full-back Rob Cook, flanker Chris Morgan, and front-rowers Dave Ward and Rudi Brits all return to the starting line-up

Centre Tom Luke is also named to make his first appearance of the season, which is an opportunity that might also befall lock Mike Myerscough, who is named on the bench.

Having made eight previous visits to the Brickfields, the Pirates have won just once - 26-23 on Boxing Day 2005. Included in the list of defeats was a 16-8 loss last October.

Presently second in Pool 'A' of the British & Irish Cup competition, the Pirates will be keen to seek victory, and would love to show the form which saw them win 46-7 at home during Christmas. In November they won against Gael Force (29-8) but lost to Leinster (12-10), whilst fifth-placed Plymouth Albion narrowly lost at home to Leinster (13-16) and drew away to Newport (3-3).

Other games in Pool 'A' this week see third-placed Newport entertain Gael Force on Friday evening, whilst on Saturday fourth-placed Exeter Chiefs have a tasty home tie against table leaders Leinster.

All in all, it appears, we're surely in for an interesting weekend.

Cornish Pirates:
R. Cook, R. McAtee, M. Ireland, T. Luke, N. Jackson
J. Bentley, G. Cattle (capt), B. Cowan, S. Betty, C. Morgan
B. Gulliver, L. Collins, R. Brits, D. Ward, R. Storer.

Replacements:
C. Rimmer, R. Prosser, S. Franklin, M. Evans, M. Myerscough, P. Devlin, W. Davies.

 

See Also High Tackle's Round 3 Preview