Thank you to our friends at Cornish Pirates for providing us with the following post. Special thanks to Phil Westren and Brian Tempest for match report and photo's.Rotherham Titans 14 Cornish Pirates 17
RFU Championship Play-Offs Round 4
Clfton Lane Rotherham
Saturday 31st March
Phil Westren's Match Report
Seeing March out with a Pool B play-offs win away to Rotherham, the Cornish Pirates made a positive stride forward in their bid to reach the semi-finals stage of this season's RFU Championship competition.
It was envisaged that Saturday's challenge at Clifton Lane was never going to be easy, as the Titans had proved tough opponents when the Pirates won 25-17 at the Mennaye Field the previous weekend, but as it worked out the Pirates were good value for their victory, and one that actually made it four wins out of four against their Yorkshire opponents this season.
Both sides went close to scoring tries during the opening period of the game but when the first points came they were from the boot, as after full-back Rob Cook missed with a penalty chance to put the Pirates in front on the quarter of an hour mark he made no mistake just two minutes later.
There was disappointment for the home side when they soon lost the services through injury of fly-half Garry Law, who was the Championship's top points scorer at the end of Stage 1 this season, and adding a little extra frustration they were unlucky not to level matters when replacement Cliffie Hodgson was off target with a penalty attempt.
Once again this season it was the effort from the Pirates pack that was particularly impressive. Hooker Dave Ward was his usual industrious and combative self, the fresh second-row pairing of Mike Myerscough and Laurie McGlone were 'doing the business', and displaying his athletic pace flanker Phil Burgess extended the lead with an unconverted try scored in the 28th minute.
Cook put the Pirates 11-0 up with a second successful penalty kicked before the break, and with just a minute on the clock in the second half he added one more make it look comfortable at 14-0.
Rotherham will have felt that they had under performed thus far in the match, but they were soon revitalised when try-machine flanker Robin Copeland dived over for a try converted by Hodgson. The Titans were back in with a shout.
There was no doubt that the Pirates had looked the better side, defending well and always dangerous with ball in hand, but they now needed to take the sting out of the Titans play by hopefully scoring next, which they thankfully did early in the last quarter when Cook fired over his fourth, and what would ultimately prove decisive, match-winning penalty.
The end of the game was intensely fought in the good conditions and in the dying seconds the home side registered their second try, a consolation effort from replacement Adrian Griffiths who made it to the line from near 30 metres out. Hodgson added the conversion.
Commenting at the end of the match, Cornish Pirates high performance manager Chris Stirling said:
"Our forwards played really well, which is a must to stand a chance of winning away to Rotherham, and overall it was a job very well done."
The Pirates have two more games left in the play-offs stage of the Championship, with important fixtures at home to Bedford Blues on Sunday 15th April (ko 3pm) and away to Leeds Carnegie on Saturday 21st April (ko 3pm).
In the meantime, however, they also have an important British & Irish Cup semi-final tie to play away at Cross Keys this coming Saturday (ko 3pm).
Rotherham Titans:
T. Foden, P. Homan, D. McCall, P. Nonu, S. Monahan
G. Law (C. Hodgson 24), J. Williams, S. Taulava, S. Dougall (capt), R. Copeland
B. Maddison (C. Kirwan 72), N. Patrick (A. Griffiths 52), B. Hooper (T. Vaioleti 64), D. Baines, S. Cahill (J. Kilbane 64).
Replacements: E. Stagg, E. Tellwright.
Cornish Pirates:
R. Cook, G. Pointer, S. Hill, A. Suniula (T. Cooper 78), M. Evans
C. Thomas, G. Cattle (capt, T. Kessell 78), K. Marriott (B. Maidment 63), P. Burgess (R. Elloway 68), C. Morgan
M. Myerscough, L. McGlone (M. Smith 57), A. Paver (R. Brits 72), D. Ward, C. Rimmer (R. Storer 77).
Scorers:
Rotherham Titans
Tries: Copeland, Griffiths
Conversions: Hodgson 2
Cornish Pirates
Try: Burgess
Penalties: Cook 4
Referee: T. Wigglesworth
Attendance: 1,222
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