Cornish Pirates 32 Newport 18
By Dick Straughan@ at Mennaye Field
Cornish Pirates head coach Ian Davies declared himself satisfied that his new-look squad are ready for the start of the Championship season after they ran in five tries against a feisty Newport side at Mennaye Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Pirates travel to St Helier to face league newcomers Jersey next Saturday and Davies was happy with the way his team had coped with the physical threat posed by the Welsh Premiership outfit both on and off the ball.
"Today we saw winning rugby," he said. "It wasn't always pretty and in patches we were good and in patches we were bad. But with the endeavour we showed we came out with the right result.
"We will have to contend with a big hostile crowd in Jersey but we won't see as much off-the-ball stuff as we did here. We sort of expected it but we also expected that it would be dealt with, but it wasn't and the game was fractious and bitty. But when we played with tempo Newport couldn't live with it."
Davies included trialists Ed Tellwright and Jamie Forrester in his squad for the game and then drafted in Redruth prop Peter Joyce as a late replacement for the injured Alan Paver.
Both hookers struggled with the autumnal conditions in Penzance as good lineout platforms were squandered before Newport edged into an early 6-3 lead courtesy of two Tom Hancock penalties.
The Pirates were fired into life at the end of the first quarter after Welsh scrum-half Rhys Downes was held up on their line after taking a quick tap-penalty. From the restart the Pirates stole possession and Tom Kessell looked set to race the length of the field before being felled by an illegal block.
Referee Ross Campbell kept his cards in his pocket but the Pirates kept up the tempo, drove downfield and profited as lock David Lyons squeezed over for the opening try, converted by Hallett.
Five minutes later they struck again as superb offloading in contact by Tom Bedford and Tom Riley gave Hallett a run to the line. The former Plymouth Albion fly-half converted his try and then landed a 40-metre penalty in the 35th minute to make it 20-6 to the hosts.
Newport refused to yield, though, and scored their opening try in stoppage time as lock Adam Frampton found a gap to launch himself through, following a spell of pressure close to the Pirates' line.
The Pirates pepped up their back-line with the introduction of Forrester and Alex Cheeseman at the break, and it was the former who opened his account with a try after just four minutes on the field.
A massive midfield mis-pass from Riley wrong-footed the Newport defence on the edge of their 22 and Forrester took the ball before beating Geraint O'Driscoll to score. Hallett missed the conversion and was immediately withdrawn, after another solid display in the number ten shirt.
The home side continued to press for another score to make the game safe but it was Newport who again hit back as James Leadbetter ploughed his way downfield and flanker Craig Everett took the scoring pass.
Trailing by seven, Newport sensed the opportunity to press on and level the game, but were never able to again threaten the Pirates' line despite the sin-binning of hooker Rob Elloway for throwing a punch.
The Pirates regrouped, continually pressing Newport back into their own half, and, after former Pirate Ryan Prosser had upset Mr Campbell by wandering through the middle of a ruck, Aaron Penberthy was unlucky to see a long-range penalty hit a post at the Newlyn End.
With four minutes to go, flanker Phil Burgess made the game safe for the hosts as, with the Welsh side attacking from deep, he ripped the ball back, turned on his heels, and raced in unopposed to score under the posts. Penberthy slotted the simplest of conversions.
Cornish Pirates: @Nowell (Forrester h-t); Tellwright, Riley, Bedford, Kessell (Cheesman h-t); Hallett (Penberthy 46), Cattle (capt) (Kessell 67); Andrew (Joyce 63), Semmens (Elloway 22, sin bin 66-76), Prescott (Storer 52); Lyons (Burgess 52), Barry; Johnson, Marriott (Andrew 68-76), Ewers (Maidment 60).
Scorers: Tries –@ Lyons, Hallett, Forrester, Burgess; Conversions – Hallett (2), Penberthy; Penalties – Hallett (2).
Yellow card:@ Elloway.
Newport: @O'Driscoll; Frewen, Robinson, Davies, Awcock; Hancock, Downes; Pattison, Brown, J Jones; R Jones, Frampton; Waldron, Townsend, Coombs. Replacements (all used): Lavender, Prosser, Jeffries, Rosser, Randall, Everett, Griffiths, Quick, Leadbetter, Snedden, Richards, Hodnett, Broad, Hewett.
Scorers: Tries –@ Frampton, Everett; Conversion – Everett; Penalties – Hancock (2)
Referee:@ R Campbell (RFU).
Attendance:@ 1,139.
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