Ealing Trailfinders v Cornish Pirates RFU Championship Round 7 (Rearranged) Saturday February 10th 2023 Trailfinders Sports Ground
Kick Off 15:00
There are a few changes in the Pirates line up from the team that won 27-21 at Bedford Blues last weekend. Jacob Morris is selected at loose-head prop in place of the unavailable Lefty Zigiriadis, Ruaridh Dawson at 9 partners Tom Pittman, plus there is a return for skipper John Stevens in the back row. Bruce Houston is fit again to take a place on the bench, as is stalwart prop Jack Andrew who will be looking to make his 230th appearance for the club.
Cornish Pirates 15 Will Trewin 14 Robin Wedlake 13 Joe Jenkins 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Matt McNab 10 Tom Pittman 9 Ruaridh Dawson 1 Jacob Morris 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Fin Richardson 4 Will Britton 5 Steele Barker 6 Alex Everett 7 Johnn Stevens (captain) 8 Hugh Bokenham.
Replacements 16 Rhys Williams 17 Jack Andrew 18 Matt Johnson 19 Josh King, 20 Wil Gibson 21Alex Schwarz 22 Bruce Houston 23 Frankie Nowell
Match Officials Referee: Alex Thomas AR1: Jonathan Cook AR2: Mike Woods
This will be a tough game against the league leaders but as we've seen over the last 2 weeks the boys have risen to the challenge.
I think it's important to get a good start and not let Ealing get an early lead and allow them to control the pace of the game.
We have already exceeded my expectations for this run of 3 games so any points will be a huge plus.
Yes a tough encounter, but should we be playing this game at all? The first fixture was abandoned by the ref because of a serious injury to one of our players caused by an illegal tackle. This in effect is rewarding Ealing for being the bad boy. At the point of abandonment Ealing would have been down to 14 players and were under huge pressure from Pirates. IMO that game should have either been abandoned as the ref had done and the game forfeited by Ealing. Or the points could have been shared. Now Ealing start with a fresh 15 (does that include the player who caused the original injury? (What happened to him btw) Pirates have another hugely expensive away trip for no reason and we risk further serious injury to players by this rather 'robust' set of players. Just saying. I just hope the ref is strong and everyone comes out of it with heads held high. Go for it lads.
Ealing 40 Pirates 12
This was always going to be a tough game.
Ealing clearly had forward dominance which put us on the back foot.
The 3 yellow cards added to our problems.
Well done to all the players and coaches for the effort shown over the last 3 weeks.
Enjoy your week off.
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