By Mark W-J
October 14 2009

Despite our three match winning run coming to an end at Exeter last weekend, Welsh fans are remarkably upbeat as we welcome Cornish Pirates to ODP on Saturday. The general air of optimism following a tough series of opening fixtures which have seen us collect losing bonus points away to the top three clubs will be tested by our visitors, smarting from back-to-back defeats to Plymouth and Bristol. Cornish Pirates are a club with whom London Welsh have enjoyed only a brief history.  The history books record a first Welsh visit to Cornwall on the Easter tour of the 1910-11 season for a game at Redruth, and while we ventured as far as Camborne and Penryn in 1970-71, it wasn’t until February 2004 that we made it down to Penzance & Newlyn.  That game will live long in the memory of the home supporters, featuring as it did a winning try in the ninth minute of stoppage time.  Welsh made the long journey home with two bonus points following that 40-38 reverse, but three weeks later the Pirates were soundly beaten 37-5 in the rematch. 

At that time ‘Pirates’ was just a nickname, but for the 2005-06 season the club had rebranded themselves as Cornish Pirates.  Some had been calling for a Cornish club to be fast-tracked into the top flight of English rugby since the legendary County Championship victory of 1991 when Cornwall beat Yorkshire 29-20 in front of 54,000 fans.  The new set-up upset many rival clubs, who felt that the Pirates didn’t represent the county as a whole, as well as fans of Penzance & Newlyn who believed that the club had turned its back on its true heartland.  The level of vitriol aimed at the club’s major backer, Dicky Evans, led him to step down as President in January of last year. 

Part of the motive behind the name change is undoubtedly the attempt to rekindle ‘national’ fervour.  Many Cornish believe that Kernow should claim independence from England; the old language, like Breton, is closely related to Welsh.  Former Penzance & Newlyn prop Stack Stevens, who toured New Zealand with the 1971 Lions, has been campaigning for Cornwall to be represented at the Commonwealth Games next year, although a similar bid four years ago, which compared the Duchy to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, failed. 

This is the Pirates’ seventh season at this level, their best finish being 3^rd behind Harlequins and Bedford in 2005-06, although they did win the EDF Trophy the following season, beating local rivals Exeter 19-16.  Our clubs have consequently met on 12 occasions, with Welsh claiming just four wins to date – two at ODP, the second by 16-10 in 2006-07, and on our last two visits to the Duchy.  Those games have both been played at Camborne Rec, where our promotion challenge had almost fallen off the rails back in 1994-95.  The newly christened Pirates had abandoned the Mennaye in Penzance in 2005 for Kenwyn, near Truro, before settling on Camborne twelve months later. 

The Pirates currently sit in fifth place in the Championship with 17 points and four wins.  Their solitary bonus point came from a 57-24 thrashing of Moseley, who have improved dramatically since to sit between Pirates and Welsh in sixth.  They have a new coaching team in place, including former London Welsh scrum-half Harvey Biljon and ‘High Performance Manager’ (whatever that is…) Chris Stirling, but perhaps their most significant summer signing was that of skipper Gavin Cattle from the Scarlets.  Unfortunately Cattle has been sidelined since damaging knee ligaments in that win over Moseley. 

A couple of London Welshmen will be renewing acquaintances following their own summer moves – centre Simon Whatling and Commercial Manager Rob McEvoy were both at Pirates last year.  On the opposition side, Wales 7s international Rhodri McAtee played youth rugby for London Welsh before starting his professional career with Worcester.  The club lost a number of big names in the close season, including full-back Marika Vakacegu (Sale), hooker Darren Dawidiuk (Gloucester) and flanker Bertrand Bedes (Bristol).  Their top scorer, with 29 points to-date is fly-half Jonny Bentley, who arrived from Japanese club Yokogawa Musashino Allstars, while top try-scorer is Kiwi flanker Blair Cowan with four.

 

Dorian Williams v Pirates' defence!