London Welsh
Cornish Pirates v London Welsh - Match Preview
By Mark W-J
January 6 2010
Following Saturday’s last-gasp defeat of Exeter Chiefs, London Welsh again face opposition from the south-west with a visit to the Cornish Pirates on Sunday. Our last meeting at Camborne in April saw Welsh squeak a narrow 10-8 win, but our 34-10 victory at Old Deer Park in October was more in keeping with a series in which the thirteen meetings to date have yielded an average of 46 points.
Pirates have had a mixed season, nine wins from 16 leaving them in fifth place in the league. Their 31-15 defeat at Bristol on New Year’s Day, in front of the season’s biggest crowd of 7,714, saw them drop two places behind Welsh and Bedford, although we’re still 16 points behind Exeter who are themselves eight adrift of Bristol. Yet at the beginning of October Pirates were neck-and-neck with Bristol and Exeter with four wins from four, including an impressive 24-13 win at Nottingham on the opening weekend. Since then, however, five wins from 12 have seen them drop off the pace, although with all of the clubs in the chasing pack taking points from one another, Welsh, Pirates, Bedford and Nottingham are separated by just four points.
The structure of the season’s fixtures means that we follow one week behind Bristol, and the Pirates are following Exeter. After Plymouth’s shock victory over their Devon rivals before Christmas they were given a rude awakening at Camborne a fortnight ago when the Pirates secured their second biggest win of the season, 46-7. However, Bristol were not going to be distracted having reclaimed top spot with their win at Sandy Park, and last Friday they grabbed a first half bonus point in a comfortable 31-15 win, a last minute converted try from Pirates’ full-back Rob Cook giving the scoreline some semblance of respectability. Bristol have claimed the maximum five points from seven of their last eight games, and they finish the regular season with trips to Nottingham and London Welsh, both of whom currently have a third-place finish in their sights.
Our meeting at ODP in October produced the best 40 minutes of rugby that London Welsh have produced all season. We also earned a first-half bonus point that day, former Pirates centre Simon Whatling intercepting a pass on halfway to sprint clear for the fourth try with the final play of the half. Yet having scored two more tries within six minutes of the restart – including the first for Dorian Williams in his 65th league appearance – we inexplicably started coasting, not just for the remainder of this match, but through the subsequent fixtures with Moseley and Doncaster. Since the league season resumed after the break for the British & Irish Cup, however, we’ve won four from five and collected 19 points from a possible 25, which is second only to Bristol over that period.
Pirates have won five and lost two at home this season, the defeats coming against Bristol and Doncaster. Their lowest attendance at Camborne was the 2,465 who watched them beat Bedford 25-24 two months ago with both teams scoring three tries, although the current average of 3,251 will surely be boosted when their season finishes with visits from Exeter and Nottingham. Interestingly, the four clubs currently occupying the places immediately behind Bristol and Exeter have met eight times so far, and Pirates’ opening-day win at Meadow Lane is the only away win. But after Sunday Welsh will have played all three rivals home and away, whereas Bedford, Pirates and Nottingham have still to play one another.
Kiwi flanker Blair Cowan is the club’s top try-scorer this season with eight, which puts him third overall behind Bristol’s Dan Norton and Tom Arscott, with eleven and nine respectively. The Exiles’ Errie Claassens is currently joint-fourth on seven tries with Bedford’s Luke Fielden and Exeter’s Matt Jess, both of whom have increased their scoring record at Welsh’s expense in the last fortnight. Top points scorer for the Pirates is Rob Cook with 95 having landed 28 from 36 attempts (77.8%), although Jonny Bentley (39 points, 63.2%), Rhys Jones (37 points, 50%) and James Moore (34 points, 86.7%) have all had a spell as the front-line goalkicker.
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The forecast has also deteriorated significantly even in the last 24 hours with a risk of snow falling on match day too according to Beeb.
Depends which model you use as a 'true' guide of course but even Metcheck has it at mainly dry with 100% cloud cover, stiff NE breeze and top temp of 2C for Sunday now. A lot hangs on how much of a thaw we get (frost n ice rather than snow) over the next few days.
Stadium for Cornwall Website: [stadium4cornwall.co.uk]
Pirates on Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Pirates on Twitter: [twitter.com]
Pirates Official Website: [cornish-pirates.com]
Cornish Pirates Supporters Club:-
Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Twitter: [twitter.com]
Email: 'CPSC@mail.com'
15: Ed Lewis-Pratt
14: Greg Evans
13; Paul Mackey
12: Simon Whatling
10: Gordon Ross
9: Nick Runciman
1: Michael Holford
2: James Buckland
3: Lorne Ward
4: Matt Garvey
5: Matt Corker
6: Guy Mercer
7: Jonathan Mills (C)
8: Tom Brown
Replacements
16: Dorian Williams
17: Dan George
18: Mike Powell
19: Lee Beach
20: Rob Lewis
21: Dominic Shabbo
22: Aled Thomas
Quote:How many dual reg and loan players will London Welsh play on Sunday.Two weeks ago they had six.I suppose it depends on London Irish selection on Saturday.
Not so many according to that teamsheet.
Stadium for Cornwall Website: [stadium4cornwall.co.uk]
Pirates on Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Pirates on Twitter: [twitter.com]
Pirates Official Website: [cornish-pirates.com]
Cornish Pirates Supporters Club:-
Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Twitter: [twitter.com]
Email: 'CPSC@mail.com'
Also hope London Welsh get their off the field problems sorted out.Very worrying whats being reported on your site.
The first inspection is tomorrow morning and there will be a further inspection on Sat morning before our team sets off for Cornwall (approx 10.30am). If the game is still on at that stage then of course there will be further inspections up to kick-off.
There is more concern over the safety of the terraces than the pitch at the moment and it seems almost certain that the match will be at Penzance and not Camborne.
I will post any further info on here and no doubt it will also be on the official sites for LW and CP.
I know that supporters/the team have flights and other travel arrangements booked, but would it have been sensible to consider bringing the match forward to tomorrow due to the adverse weather forecasted for Sunday?
The key change in their prediction & the Mets though is the max temp which could be 2-3C today, and 4C tomorrow and Sun which may give some chance of a thaw of some sorts. Overnight temps in the far west may stay above freezing until Sunday night too.
That gives hope to me for a green light.
Stadium for Cornwall Website: [stadium4cornwall.co.uk]
Pirates on Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Pirates on Twitter: [twitter.com]
Pirates Official Website: [cornish-pirates.com]
Cornish Pirates Supporters Club:-
Facebook: [www.facebook.com]
Twitter: [twitter.com]
Email: 'CPSC@mail.com'
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