Cornish Pirates V Bedford - Preview

Cornish Pirates V Bedford
Sunday October 21st Kick Off 3:00pm

Having beaten Plymouth Albion last Saturday 13-10, the Bedford side will travel to Cornwall in buoyant mood for this Sunday's encounter at Camborne.

With a strong line-up & Captained by lock Jon Phillips, The Blues, will be looking for a first away win against the Cornish Pirates.

For centre Tom Youngs and flanker Ben Pienaar it will be their second recent visit to the 'Rec' having played for Leicester Tigers in the August pre-season match. James Pritchard has returned from RWC duty with Canada, and former Northampton hooker Dan Richmond is selected at hooker.

A revelation for Bedford this season has been Kiwi fly-half Jon Elrick, son of 91-times capped New Zealand footballer Adrian Elrick. He has the best kicking percentage in the league, with 27 from 28 giving him 96.43%.

The Pirates won the corresponding fixture at home last year 34-5, but in the away match at Goldington Road lost 41-10, the club unfortunately given no alternative but to fulfil the fixture and play on a Wednesday night in early April when seriously depleted by injury.

The Pirates won the corresponding fixture at home last year 34-5

The Pirates line-up shows a number of changes from the one that won at Esher. Gareth Steenson, who was unavailable, returns at fly-half, with the versatile Jimmy Moore moving to the wing.

Chris Cracknell has been passed fit to resume playing at blind-side flanker, and Rob Elloway will continue at hooker having replaced Nathan Kemp (injured) - during half time at Esher.

Cornish Pirates
15 Ollie Thomas, 14 Brian Tuohy, 13 Paul Devlin, 12 Nick Buckley, 11 Jimmy Moore
10 Gareth Steenson, 9 Ed Fairhurst, 8 Tim Cowley (capt), 7 Iva Motusaga, 6 Chris Cracknell
5 Bruce Cumming, 4 Joe Beardshaw, 3 Dan Seal, 2 Rob Elloway, 1 Alan Paver.

Replacements
-Darren Dawidiuk, Peter Cook, Sam Heard, Scott Hobson, Matt Evans, Rhodri McAtee, Richard Bolt

Bedford Blues
15 Brendan Burke, 14 Ryan Owen, 13 Liam Roberts, 12 Tom Youngs, 11 James Pritchard
10 Jon Elrick, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Rory McKay, 7 Ben Pienaar, 6 Nic Strauss, 5 Mouritz Botha,
4 Jon Phillips, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dan Richmond, 1 Marco Cecere.

Replacements
Grag Sammons, James Graham, Arthur Brenton, Sacha Harding, Alex Page, Matt Allen, James Hinkins.

Referee - Rowan Kitt (RFU)

Touch Judges - Nigel Higginson & Fred Spong

Last time