Squanto
Pirates v Chiefs match review
Squanto
By Squanto
September 16 2008
Squanto gives us his views on Sunday's clash between the Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs. The Chiefs get back to winning ways but it was a close thing! After dominating the first half they had to weather a Pirates storm before a piece of Drauniniu magic secured victory.
Squanto
September 16 2008
Squanto gives us his views on Sunday's clash between the Cornish Pirates and Exeter Chiefs. The Chiefs get back to winning ways but it was a close thing! After dominating the first half they had to weather a Pirates storm before a piece of Drauniniu magic secured victory.
Match Review
Pirates 23 Chiefs 32
As I expected this match was to be and explosive and thrilling contest for 2 sides both looking to make up from their previous weeks losses in from of a crowd of 4913 at the Pirate’s home turf of the Camborne Rec.From the kick off the Chiefs looked in control and were it not for a brush with the touch line Josh Drauniniu may have scored in the first few minutes of play.The first chance for some points came 7 minutes in for the Pirates with the Chiefs being penalised for not rolling away. Fortunately for the Chiefs Doug Sanft missed this early opportunity to go ahead.Both sides were playing well but the Chiefs had the majority of the ball, 11 minutes in and a penalty awarded to the Chiefs against the Pirates for coming in from the side looked like the Chiefs chance to take the lead. This decision was subsequently then reversed as Ex-Pirate Chris Cracknell has been seen by the Touch Judge as creating some form of mister meaner against his former team mates.But only minutes later a great tackle by John Andres saw a penalty awarded against the Pirates for holding on. Gareth Steenson another ex-pirate took up the mark and easily slotted it between the posts for the fist score 3-0. Following his kicking the week before against Leeds I think he may have found his old pair of boots in the Camborne changing room as they appeared to be working this week.Some great play followed with the Chiefs moving up the field a chip on from Matt Cornwell over the line couldn’t be reached in time with a Pirates player diving on to save their side. The scrum that followed with a second phase of play from the Chiefs led to the Pirates being caught offside and so Gareth Steenson took another easy 3 points. 6-027 minutes in, saw our first try of the match with Sean Marsden crossing the line with Gareth Steenson adding the other 2 to the score. 13-0 Josh Drauniniu also had his old running boots on with a dash up field passing the majority of the Pirates team, he was caught and minutes later another offside penalty for against the Pirates let Gareth Steenson slot another 3 points 16-03 minutes later the Chiefs were penalised for the same offence and the Doug Sanft opened the scoring for the Pirates with an easy 3 point kick. 16-3From the restart the Chiefs kept up the pressure and were awarded another penalty with Gareth Steenson taking the honours again 19-3. Obviously his old boots he found were doing the trick, let’s hope he keeps them for the rest of the season.5 minutes of Injury time for the first half followed and another penalty awarded to the Chiefs for not rolling away let Gareth Steenson have the last word of the half with another 3 points 22-3.Half time banter was about how many points were could get today and that we now needed more try’s for the what seemed an obvious bonus point score.How wrong we were to be as this was not to be the case , the half time sleep the Chiefs must have had let the Pirates come out all guns blazing on what looked like an uncatchable score. The rain started to drizzle and the sun shine we left Exeter in had already long disappeared.The Pirates were to take the next score with another penalty from not rolling away and Doug Sanft added another easy 3 points. 22-62 minutes later came the Chiefs next chance as a penalty against the Pirates Prop Alan Paver for turning in against a much younger John Andress let Gareth Steenson take his first shot into the wind, which for the first time in the match swung right and missed the posts. 22-6Following another penalty and a quick line out from the Pirates gave them their first visit to our try line with their replacement Iva Motusaga claiming the points easily converted by Doug Sanft. 22-13Replacement came on for both sides and the following play led to many phases of attack from the Pirates against what seemed a half a sleep Chiefs side. This ended up with a big push from the Pirates crossing the line again but luckily for the Chiefs they managed to hold it up 22-13Minute’s later saw Chiefs captain Rob Baxter visit the sin bin with a yellow card, not sure what for but with a man down this match looked like it was going the wrong way.This was to be the case as the awarded penalty let the Pirates pull back another vital 3 points. 22-16With a man down the Pirates re grouped and fast play led to Iva Motusaga crossing the Chiefs line again for his second try with the resulting conversion putting the Pirates ahead. 22-23With the Pirates ahead the Chiefs finally woke up as they had seen their 19 point advantage completely eroded and were still a man down.Josh Drauniniu who had played very well in the first half finally raced up the wing avoiding several Pirates tacklers to put us back ahead with Gareth Steenson adding the 2 points. 29-23To keep the win the Chiefs kept hold of the ball and stuffed it up their shirts, our bench came on and then Richie Baxter returned to the field. The Chiefs continually pushed up field and on the cusp of injury time Gareth Steenson has his final chance with a messy penalty kick that sealed the win 32-23.Injury time followed with the Chiefs supporters counting the seconds down and the players asking the referee to check his watch, his whistle finally came following a chip forwards to kill the ball.So came to close another game of two halves with both teams excelling in their own 40 minute period. Lessons need to be learnt as this has happened before with a poor start to the second half. No bonus point either which could prove costly later in the season.As for the score it wasn’t the try fest we saw at our last encounter however it was far off my scientific approach to score prediction! As for the man of the match the Pirates French number 8 Bertrand Bedes defiantly deserved their award and for us (stand in scrum half) Chris Budgen takes mine.
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