Cornish Pirates

RFU Championship Play Off

Camborne Rec
Sunday 28th March 2010
Kick-off 3pm

Phil Westren's Preview

'Derby' games between the Cornish Pirates and Plymouth Albion always create special interest, but for Sunday's encounter at Camborne there is inevitably extra spice added as the teams now meet in the play-offs stage of the RFU Championship.

The results between the two sides when the Pirates lost away and won at home in Stage 1 of the Championship, and then more recently beat Albion away in the British & Irish Cup, will count for 'nowt', as Sunday's result is up for grabs between two teams who each picked up a bonus point when losing their play-off openers last weekend – the Pirates going down 19-12 at Bristol and Plymouth Albion losing 9-10 at home to Bedford Blues.

Ahead of Sunday's game, High Performance Manager Chris Stirling said: “Plymouth will provide us with a real stern challenge as they have the ability to stop the way we want to play

It'll be up to us to try and dominate at the set-piece, and if we can get that right and get some go forward then I believe we have the game plan, the players and the environment to take the spoils

As for a Plymouth Albion view regarding Sunday's match, Director of Rugby Graham Dawe is aware that his side will have to bring a strong mental approach to the game.

He commented: “We were disappointed to lose last week but still enjoyed the challenge and intensity of it all. It will be the same again this weekend at Camborne, but we have won at some hard grounds this year, so we have to go with some confidence and see where it takes us.”

Cornish Pirates
R. Cook, A. Havili, P. Devlin, M. Ireland, N. Jackson
J. Bentley, G. Cattle (capt), B. Cowan, S. Betty, C. Morgan
B. Gulliver, L. McGlone, A. Paver, D. Ward, C. Rimmer.

Replacements:
R. Storer, R. Elloway, S. Franklin, M. Evans, M. Myerscough, T. Luke. R. McAtee.

Referee: Llyr Apgeraint Roberts (RFU)