St. Ives vs Penzance & Newlyn – Match Report

Pirates' First Half Polish Proves Decisivey

By Phil Westren

St. Ives 14 – Penzance & Newlyn 34

Played on a sunny and still late summer's evening, this was a friendly encounter where both teams used their squad numbers to enable them to have important game time ahead of their respective league programmes ahead.

That the Pirates won was very much down to an impressive first half performance, where territorial dominance combined with slick passing and running was very much in evidence.

Full-back Sam Cahill, who is always willing to counter-attack, scored the first try under the posts at the clubhouse end, plus he added the conversion. Then, all but from the restart, a further display of excellent passing and handling led to an unconverted try scored by centre Joey Norway.

The Pirates were fully testing their opponents at every opportunity, and brave as the home 'Hakes' were defensively, they were unable to prevent two more tries scored by their near neighbours. Centre Josh Semmens powered over for one converted by Cahill, and there was an unconverted try scored wide out by Calum Gardner.

Before the break St. Ives' energetic centre Will McRitchie ran in a try, converted by Matt Turton, which made it 7-24, and with the Pirates losing the services of skipper Stan Somers to a red card confidence in home ranks was suddenly boosted.

Into the second half St. Ives added to their account with a try scored by Liam Carlyn, which was again converted by Turton, and with former Cornish Pirates' prop Hayden King one of several strong carriers there was a feeling to help ease tension the Pirates needed to score next.

As it worked out, in remaining time two fine tries were created. Some excellent passing led to a try scored in the right corner by Harris Eddy, and then there was one by scrum half Ben Durrant who spotted space, broke an attempted tackle, and made it to the line from some 25 metres out. 

All remained competitive, and a little feisty, right to nearing the end, as the 'derby' match saw two yellow cards issued by referee Mr. Will Williams to 'Pirate' Tom Hutton and to 'Hake' Sam Bassett.

Okay, perhaps the contest didn't at times live up to its 'Friendly' name, but there was still plenty for coaches and players alike to take from the match.

Penzance & Newlyn's head coach, Murray Westren, commented:

"I thought we played some very good rugby for much of the first half, when it was evident that the effort put into training came to fruition.

"Losing our captain to a red card and them scoring either side of halftime led to us appearing to lose our way for a period, but these are things to learn from and ultimately it shows the importance of playing such pre-season matches."

(Penzance & Newlyn are next in action when for their opening Tribute Regional 2 SW league game this season, they will welcome Cullompton to the Mennaye Field on Saturday 6^th September – ko 3pm)

📷Pirates' prop Joe Best in the thick of the action at St.Ives