The visitors plans had though taken a bit of knock, with Labuschange's withdrawal from the bench following a disappointing fitness test the previous day; his hamstring still refusing to heal sufficiently. These though are far more professionally advanced days in the Pirates camp and this blow did little to hinder final preparations as the squad looked calm and confident of a worthwhile performance.

Early home pressure from the start threatened but fell short of reward, as the quicker pace in all departments from the Premiership boys initially startled their opponents. The Pirates youngsters reacted as youth will however and quickly adapting managed to respond sufficiently to restore some parity as a revitalised Havili then went on to stun the home support with the games opening score as the quarter hour mark clicked by. His run from inside his own half looked to have been halted as younger Quin legs reeled him in as he entered the 22. And yet a couple of challenges and a stumble later only delayed the inevitable much to the travelling band(s) of Pirate fans delight. A status taken up a notch as Bentley cleanly dissected the uprights for the first of his 3 from 3 kicks. 7-0

That the Tongan hadn't scored moments earlier in the left hand corner, and was unlucky not to make an interception with a clear run to the line in front of him soon after, only further indicated how much the Cornishmen had seemingly settled to their task.

Realistically any chance of a shock result was still a long way off as the international class in Quins ranks was never far from view, whether with or without possession. Their speed with ball in hand, support play and offloading was a joy at times as Care directed operations. Whilst Easter and his cronies were equally sharp and ruthless at any breakdown. Credit where and all that, but it was encouraging to see the white shirted pretenders try and emulate wherever possible and even if not always successful as they often than not were met with a solid multi coloured quartered wall as the homesters gradually took control.

Well worked tries by Tiesi & Birdman (Comacho - thanks for that snippet goes to Strettle as the teams lined up for the restart); the first following a sleepy Cornish defence not anticipating a quick tap and go by Care of all people(!), realised a dozen points to give the Quins the lead they wouldn't relinquish. That said a penalty by Bentley did at least keep things honest as the half hour mark came and went. 10-12.

The last ten minutes of the half though produced the only blot on the Pirates copybook as they appeared to inexplicably switch off/become over-rawed, who knows for sure? Maybe Monye's contribution was proving to hot to handle though Davies' safe hands and swift breaks were going some way to counter this threat.

Two further converted tries in three minutes by Strettle and Tiesi again however, subsequently provided a welcome half time cushion of three scores as the Quins went in 10-26 to the good.

Stern words no doubt followed in the changing room from the smartly attired Sterling, Biljon & Davies with a marked improvement revealed from the restart. Chances of Cornish endeavour were though few and far between, but the defence remained unbreached and the pack matched their counterparts at the set piece to give further evidence of their potential in the up and coming Championship campaign.

Ten more minutes of facing up to the 'big boys' thus stemmed any sore digits for the scorekeepers before the expected mass flurry of replacements. The fresh legs provided the catalyst for a fifth Quins try by Fuga, though by now the third quarter was in tatters with the result no longer in doubt. Possibly because of this, but certainly not without a constant reminder as to the hosts' strength and fitness, the Pirates commendably began to find their attacking options appearing once again.

Chances of a further score at least were limited until a second try from Strettle with a quarter of an hour remaining (10-40) seemed to release the pressure. A couple of near misses most notably by Ward, was followed soon after by a sniping run from Bentley at the end of a positive passage of play, to bring deserved plaudits from the sidelines.

Quins though became party poopers by scoring almost immediatley from the restart and Smith ( & Cleggs conversion) completed the scoring for the match despite the Pirates playing out the remaining five minutes or so gamely pressing for a third score of their own. (17-47).

Conclusions are logically subjective, but the general consensus post match was that the Pirates will have taken plenty from it and certainly should emerge better for this encounter. Sure there wasn't that extra edge of a meaningful competitive fixture, and there were certainly 2-3 soft tries among the seven conceded. But there is plenty of real cause for optimism assuming any pinkish tinge to that view is quickly dismissed to the back of the mind. The first real litmus test will become apparent at Nottingham in eight days time. Do you think anyone involved with the Pirates isn't relishing just such?

Cornish Pirates: 17
15 Wes Davies 14 Aisea Havili 11 Nick Jackson
13 Mark Ireland 12 Steve Winn 10 Jonny Bentley 9 Gavin Cattle (capt)
8 Matt Evans 7 Tyrone Holmes 6 Blair Cowan
5 Luke Collins 4 Ben Gulliver
3 Rudi Brits 2 Rob Elloway 1 Alan Paver.

Replacements: Carl Rimmer, Dave Ward, Paul Andrew, Laurie McGlone, Chris Morgan, Rhys Jones, Will Harris, Richard Bright, Rob Cook, Scott Franklin, Sam Betty, Ryan Storer.

Harlequins: 47
1. Ceri Jones 2. Gary Botha 3. Mark Lambert
4. Lewis Stevenson 5. George Robson
6. Chris Robshaw 7. Will Skinner 8. Nick Easter
9. Danny Care 10. Nick Evans 12. Tosh Masson 13. Gonzalo Tiesi
11. Gonzalo Camacho 14. David Strettle 15. Ugo Monye

Replacements
16. Aston Croall 17. Tani Fuga 18. John Andress 19. TBC
20. Jim Evans 21. Tom Guest 22. Gareth Williams 23. Rory Clegg
24. George Lowe 25. Neil McMillan 26. Calum Macrae 27. Sam Smith

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