Coventry vs Cornish Pirates – Match Report

Spirited Pirates Have to Settle for a Bonus Point

By Phil Westren

Coventry 41 – Cornish Pirates 26

Travelling to Coventry for this fifth versus eighth Round 13 game in the Champ, despite the New Year’s Day defeat the Cornish Pirates played with considerable spirit against a good Coventry side.

The Pirates had selected a new centre partnership for this encounter, with Zack Wimbush and Harry Yates the named pairing. Matty Ward was also given a starting place on the wing. In the forwards, Alessandro Heaney started at loose-head prop, Sol Moody at hooker, and Tomi Agbongbon at No 8, whilst in the second half replacement prop Billy Young proudly made his 50^th appearance for the club.

On a damp afternoon and in front of a big home crowd at the Butts Park Arena, Coventry wasted little time to open their account. Indeed, with less than two minutes on the clock their captain Jordan Poole popped a pass to flanker Allan Ferrie, who ran with pace and considerable determination to score a try at the posts which was duly converted by fly-half Josh Thomas. The Pirates looked to bring the power of centres Zack Wimbush and Harry Yates into play. Dents were made into the home team’s defence, but it was ‘Cov’ who threatened next through wing Ewan Baker and second-row forward Senitiki Nayalo, and they then soon extended their lead thanks to a penalty slotted by Thomas.

The Pirates were 10 points down in less than 10 minutes, and it was not long before their energetic opponents scored again when former Connacht wing and Ireland 7s player Peter Sullivan crossed for an unconverted score. In general, it was not going well for the Cornish side. However, showing strength at scrum time raised the spirit and, after wing Matty Ward made good yardage, it was alert skipper Dan Hiscocks who took advantage of space to score his tenth try of the season.

From the restart, wing Arthur Relton, backrower Tomi Agbongbon, and lock Charlie Rice were to the fore, and there was a superbly judged 50:22 kicked by fly-half Arwel Robson. To their credit the Pirates suddenly looked a different side, and after further fine play from Rice and hooker Sol Moody it was flanker Josh King’s converted try that reduced the deficit to just three points.

Two setbacks for the visitors unfortunately followed. Firstly, flanker Rory Suttor was yellow-carded, enabling Coventry to take advantage through their Spain born prop Aristot Benz-Salomon who forced his way over near the posts, Then, after Suttor’s return, the Pirates were soon one short in personnel once again after Rice was directed to a seat in the sin bin. Coventry centre Dafydd-Rhys Tiueti, son of former Tongan international Dave Tiueti, carried with determination before Nayalo, their outstanding Fijian, scored a converted bonus point providing fourth try to the right of the posts, which made it 27-12 at the break.

With the floodlights on in the early minutes of the second period, play was a bit scrappy at times. Pirates’ prop Alfie Petch was enjoying the physicality though and, after Rice pleasingly returned to the action, it was Ward who intercepted and scored a converted try in the left corner. The advantage was quickly cancelled out, however, as Ferrie proceeded to score his second try of the afternoon.

Tension would mount as the clock ticked on, and especially so after Rice was identified as the scorer of the Pirates important fourth try, which guaranteed them at least one bonus point. Replacement Louie Sinclair’s conversion made it 34-26, and there was hope of securing a second bonus point if the Pirates could score again. The effort was there, but such thoughts were dashed at the very end after Coventry replacement Api Bavadra gathered the ball and started an attack which led to Baker scoring a converted try.

Commenting at the end of the match, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle commented:

“Firstly, I wanted to credit the boys, as I felt the performance showed a marked improvement from the past couple of weeks. Their runaway try at the end probably masked the outcome a bit and we were unlucky not to score a couple more, but having said that you have to give Coventry credit. They started fast, we responded to show some fight, and looking at our performance it is something we can hang our hat on as I feel it was more like a Pirates performance, because we clawed our way back into the game and drew the second half 14-all.

“Regarding our defence, despite shipping 40 points again it was a step in the right direction because we played with that necessary determination and kept going to the end. It is something we need to do for the rest of the season to turn things around and to give us a chance to ultimately make the play-offs, so we have a lot of work to do.

“We had a short turnaround from last weekend, and after playing the league’s top team, so that wasn’t ideal. With a small squad it’s a real challenge physically, and especially when considering player welfare, but that’s a discussion for another time. It’s not an excuse and I am certainly chuffed with how we responded physically in the game, but going forward we need more of the same.”

 Coventry:   15 Tom Bacon 14 Ewan Baker 13 Morgan Adderly-Jones 12 Dafydd-Rhys Tiueti 11 Peter Sullivan 10Josh Thomas 9 Sam Maunder; 1 Aristot Benz-Solomon 2 Jordon Poole (captain) 3 Matt Johnson 4 Dan Green 5 Senitiki Nayalo 6 Allan Ferrie 7 Tom Ball 8 Morgan Strong.

Replacements (all used):   16 Murray Davidson 17 Keston Lines 18 Mikey Summerfield 19 Jack Shine 20 Api Bavadra 21 Tom Miles 22 Tommy Mathews 23 David Opoki-Fordjour.

Cornish Pirates:   15 Iwan Price-Thomas 14 Arthur Relton 13 Zack Wimbush 12 Harry Yates 11 Matty Ward 10 Arwel Robson 9 Dan Hiscocks (captain); 1 Alessandro Heaney 2 Sol Moody 3 Alfie Petch 4 Charlie Rice 5 Alfie Bell 6 Rory Suttor 7 Josh King 8 Tomi Agbongbon.

Replacements   17 Billy Young 18 Ollie Andrews 19 Milo Hallam 20 Luke Ratcliff 22 Louie Sinclair 23 Joe Elderkin (used); 16 Matt Pritchard 21 Will Rigelsford (not used).

Yellow cards:   Suttor, Rice.

Scorers:

Coventry – tries: Ferrie (2), Sullivan, Benz-Solomon, Nayalo, Baker; cons: Thomas (2), Mathews (2); pen: Thomas.

Cornish Pirates – tries: Hiscocks, King, Ward, Rice; cons: Robson (2), Sinclair.

Referee:    Hamish Grant

📷Happy Cornish Pirates' winger Matty Ward who is about to core the team's third try in the match - Photo Credit: Brian Tempest