By Andy Brown
September 22 2006

The up coming match is perhaps one of the landmarks in this ND1 season. Cornish Pirates have readily been tipped as one of the pre-season promotion favourites this year, partly due to their good record in the division in recent years, and partly due to good recruitment during the off season.

However, my trip to Cambourne in pre-season suggested all was not well. They failed to gain any kind of momentum in the match against the Newport-Gwent Dragons, and the backline looked as if they had half a pair of hands to share between the lot of them! A promotion winning side they did not look, and duly deserved to lose the match 6-20. I went away from that match thinking there was nothing to worry about.

And then the first league matches happened. The Pirates nilled Otley in Cornwall, and it is a matter of public record as well that the fancied professional Leeds team were mugged by a well motivated London Welsh side. Leeds looked awful in that match, and were luckly quite frankly to come out of the horror show with a losing bonus point to show for their pitiful effort.

In the subsequent weeks, Leeds have regained some self respect by winning away from home at Newbury and the lost city of Pertemps respectively, but reports from those who were there suggest that there is still plenty of room for improvement, with some good rugby being played for a minority of the minutes available.

The Pirates have also had their setbacks, with the shock loss to Waterloo in the second week almost - but not quite - attracting the same stunned disbelief as the Leeds loss the week before. Again, "normality" has been restored, but both sets of fans will go into this coming match with a certain degree of trepidation.

Leeds are currently suffering a horrendous run of injuries, and the money saving exercise that saw the professional squad reduced from last year's 33 in number to a lowly 26 seems to have horribly backfired. Particularly unlucky and unwelcome is the news of Rob Vickerman's setback from the A league game on Monday. Word has it that Rob won't be gracing the pitch at Headingley this side of Christmas, which is a devastating blow given the paucity of fit centres available for selection.

With Mike McDonald away on international duty, the pack this week is slightly changed, with Tom McGee coming in in his place. Stuart Hooper has failed a late fitness test, so his place is taken by Kiernan Myall, and it is likely that Mark Lock will once again captain the side in Hooper's absence from the open side position. That position is vacant because of another injury, this time to Martin Schusterman who has a slight groin strain, so Jon Dunbar takes up the blind side with Rhys Oakley once again playing at 8.

The back line has a degree of stability to it, the notable change from last week being the loss of Luther Burrell in the centres, who makes way for the returning Chris Jones. Jonah took a good deal of criticism last year about his handling and contact skills, but he is rejuvinated this year and apparently looked extremely dangerous in his first outing last week. The rest of the line is unchanged, but the Rock brothers and Biggsy will want to see a bit more ball this week in order to get that pace used to good effect.

Leeds have gained some momentum in terms of results over the last two weeks, and come home to Headingley hoping to put the nightmare of their last home outing behind them. The fans will be behind them and will hope for a full eighty minutes of high quality, pulsating rugby that will put the Pirates to the sword. Its a big test. Come through this with flying colours, and we can then perhaps dare to think of being at the top end of the table come the end. Fall at this hurdle, and mid-table mediocrity beckons, with all the horrific financial consequences that that implies... COME ON YOU TYKES!!

Leeds Tykes	vs	Cornish Pirates
Tommy McGee	1	Alan Paver
Rob Rawlinson	2	Viliami Ma'asi
Michael Cusack	3	Sam Heard
Pablo Bouza	4	Heino Senekal
Kearnan Myall	5	Joe Beardshaw
Jon Dunbar	6	Stan McKeen
Mark Lock (c)	7	Sam Betty
Rhys Oakley	8	Matt Evans
Darren Edwards	9	Gavin Cattle (c)
Jonny Hepworth	10	Alberto Di Bernardo
Tom Biggs	11	Rhodri McAtee
Chris Jones	12	Duncan Bell
Andy Rock	13	Henry Barratt
Tom Rock	14	Jonny Hylton
Leigh Hinton	15	Adrian Winnan
James Isaacson	16	Owen Hambly
Phil Nilsen	17	Grant Anderson
Danny Paul	18	Scott Hobson
Sam Stitcher	19	Chris Cracknell
Jacob Rauluni	20	Duncan Roke
Richard Vasey	21	James Moore
Richard Welding	22	Steve Winn