Cornish Pirates and Hartpury Clash: Who Will Claim Their First Cup Win?

The Cornish Pirates will face Hartpury this Saturday, 23rd November, in their third Premiership Cup Pool E game. The match, kicking off at 2.30pm, will see both sides battling for their first win in this year’s competition.

Mixed Results So Far

Hartpury began their campaign with a narrow 31-26 loss at home to Gloucester, followed by a heavy 54-3 defeat away to the Exeter Chiefs. Similarly, the Pirates endured a tough 68-7 loss to Exeter in their opening game but showed promise in a closely contested 36-28 loss away at Gloucester.

Changes to the Line-Up

The Cornish Pirates have made five changes to their starting team from last weekend’s clash against Gloucester. Fly-half Iwan Jenkins and hooker Sol Moody, who scored two tries in that game, will make their first starts of the season. Meanwhile, Arthur Relton returns on the wing, replacing Matt McNab, who moves to centre alongside Charlie McCaig.

Joint head coach Gavin Cattle shared his thoughts ahead of the game, emphasising the value of the experience gained against Premiership opposition:

“Both Hartpury and us have played two games each against Premiership sides, which has helped provide a good measuring stick.

“Facing Exeter Chiefs felt like we were playing a full-fledged Premiership side, and against decent opposition at Gloucester it pleasingly proved a closely fought contest.

“We said ahead of the block of games that we wanted to emerge from them with everyone having an even amount of game time and, from our perspective, that’s our plan again for this week. We are still in the process of learning about our present group of gifted players, who need exposure, and that is what we are giving them.”

Full Squad Announcement

The Pirates’ selection for Saturday is as follows:

Starting XV:
15 Will Trewin, 14 Robin Wedlake, 13 Matt McNab, 12 Charlie McCaig, 11 Arthur Relton, 10 Iwan Jenkins, 9 Cam Jones; 1 Billy Young, 2 Sol Moody, 3 James French, 4 Charlie Rice, 5 Eoin O’Connor, 6 Josh King, 7 Will Gibson, 8 Hugh Bokenham (captain).

Replacements:
16 Harry Hocking, 17 Oisin Michel, 18 Jay Tyack, 19 Matt Cannon, 20 Tomi Agbongbon, 21 Dan Hiscocks, 22 Bruce Houston, 23 Iwan Price-Thomas.

The Pirates will aim to build on their promising performance against Gloucester, while Hartpury will look to bounce back from their recent defeat.