Thanks to our friends at Cornish Pirates, especially Woll for the match report and Simon Bryant for the picture.Cornish Pirates 25 Rotherham Titans 17
RFU Championship Play-Offs Round 3
Sunday 25th March 2012
Woll's Match Report
Rumours of the demise of the play-off chances for the Cornish Pirates have been greatly exaggerated.
But then they needed to be, as the Cornishmen came into this game in the rather bizarre position of being in the second semi-final spot in Pool B, but without a win to their name. A couple of tries by Grant Pointer, and a determined performance all round put that particular situation right, which combined to send the home faithful away satisfied, on a balmy early spring afternoon by the seaside.
In the process they actually gained a couple of points on the group leaders Bedford who, inexplicably perhaps, could only come away from Headingley with a couple of points from a topsy-turvy draw with their hosts, Leeds. The Carnegie leap-frogging their Yorkshire rivals Rotherham, who left with the lowering sun on their backs with zilch.
And yet they could so easily have left with more, even four, had they backed themselves a little and not made one or two howling fumbles, when the scoring of a try would have been the easier option. It goes that way sometimes.
Not that the Pirates will be concerning themselves too much with that, given their own misfortunes in the opening two games. All of which has been well documented and commented upon, and likely still to result in some kind of reaction from those who can. More likely will be the obvious need to repeat today’s result as a minimum, and the attention to detail that that will require before the return fixture at Clifton Lane next Saturday.
Any doubts of that being the case were blown away in the opening minutes of this encounter, as the visitors blew open a hole in the Pirate defence with relative ease; McCall running in the opening try that went unconverted by the otherwise reliable boot of Law to give the Titans an early lead.
The Pirates responded in kind with the first of Pointer’s tries four minutes later which Cook also failed to add too. Although he rectified this soon after, to snatch the lead back after the Pirate’s pack had asserted themselves early on at scrum time to earn the simplest of kicks 20m out.
Thoughts of expanding on this advantage had to wait however, as Rotherham’s most prominent tactic of not allowing the home side to settle, paid dividends.
Law had his range nailed by now and, a couple of penalties either side of the first quarter mark, had his side back in the driving seat. A worthy position too. And nothing to do with Ward beautifully handing off Mr Gamage who had the misfortune betwixt the two scores to find himself in the hooker’s flight path at a critical moment.
Unfortunately for the Titans as half time approached this ascendancy was beginning to creak a little. Evans looked his usually nippy self on the left wing, while Suniula and Hill were feeding nicely off the ball their half backs were giving them, and threatening to profit.
As it was, it was skipper and scrum half Cattle who reaped the rewards, from another fine forwards effort close to the Rotherham line, to nudge his side back in front for the loCook did his bit 15m in from touch and so a slender four point lead made that tea taste a little sweeter.
It needed to be, as Law continued his metronomic kicking duties with a couple more goals either side of a Cookie effort, in the opening ten of the new half. In so doing the pressure on the home side was maintained making it a single point in it.
At this point the Pirates needed more composure as it appeared they were upsetting the officials too often for their own good insofar as the 50-50’s were swinging in favour of the Yorkshiremen.
Crucially they did, but not without some fortune along the way as Griffiths will concur with the line beckoning.
On the hour came the game’s defining moment, which owed its foundation to a deft offload by Suniula to Kessell in front of the main stand. The replacement scrum half-cum-winger exploited the space in front of him, but realised the line wasn’t to be his destination. Quick ball followed and arrived at the returning Hill’s hands, for the centre to sportingly pass to Pointer; and spurning his own chance for glory in the process.
Importantly following Cook’s successful conversion, the gap had now increased to eight and two scores. This way it would stay and despite a frenetic finish which saw all semblance of structure ripped up and thrown into the pitch-side bins, as the Titans strove for at least a losing bonus point.
A four try version of the same for the Pirates also had to be relinquished and despite some heroic stuff from Myerscough.
But for now we can savour a return to winning ways and trust in those we must that similar occurs next week on the road. Make no mistake; the return fixture will not be for the faint hearted or those with a disposition to hide behind sofas. I’m sure Rotherham’s colourful coach Andre, has idea’s to make this just such a reality.
Cornish Pirates
15 R. Cook 14 G. Pointer 13 A. Suniula 12 S. Hill 11 M. Evans (20 T. Kessell ht) 10 C. Thomas 9 G. Cattle (capt) 8 B. Maidment 7 P. Burgess (17 R. Elloway 71mins) 6 C. Morgan (19 K. Marriott 66mins) 5 I. Nimmo 4 M. Smith (18 M. Myerscough 61mins) 3 A. Paver 2 D. Ward 1 C. Rimmer (R. Storer 69mins)
Replacements: un-used 21 A. Penberthy, 22 T. Cooper
Tries: Pointer 2, Cattle
Cons: Cook 2
Pens: Cook 2
Rotherham Titans
15 T. Foden 14 E. Tellwright 13 D. McCall 12 P. Nonu (22 C. Hodgson 63mins) 11 S. Monahan 10 G. Law 9 J. Williams 8 R. Copeland 7 S. Dougall (capt) 6 C. Kirwan (20 S. Taulava 51mins) 5 A. Griffiths 4 B. Maddison (19 N. Patrick 51mins) 3 B. Hooper (18 R. O’Donnell 61mins) 2 T. Stagg (16 D. Baines ht) 1 S. Cahill (17 B. Harris 67mins)
Replacements: un-used 21 M. Rhodes
Tries: McCall
Pens: Law 4
Match Officials
Referee: Darren Gamage
Assistants: Nick Williams, James Minards
Official 4: Andy Bickle
Attendance: 1923
No comments:
Post a Comment