Cornish Pirates v London Welsh - Semi-Final Preview
By Mark W-J
April 28 2011
The race for promotion from the Championship has reached the semi-final stage, both games being broadcast live by Sky Sports on Sunday. London Welsh face the Cornish Pirates at the Mennaye, and you could be forgiven for thinking that our clubs are fighting for the right to be public enemy number one in the final as we try to stop Worcester from reclaiming their rightful place in the Premiership.
The play-off system has its critics - and even its supporters would have to admit that it isn’t perfect - but one positive (in a roundabout fashion) has been the amount of coverage the Championship has received over the last few weeks. Some Worcester fans, aggrieved by the thought of their club being denied promotion by a team which cannot be promoted due to their failure to meet the stringent entry criteria set by the Premiership cartel, have argued - in all seriousness - that their team should be awarded a walkover in the final. And in last week’s Rugby Times their Chief Feature Writer, Neale Harvey, wrote: ‘Could you imagine a situation whereby a side winning its Championship play-off at Wembley was unable to take its place in the Premier League? It would not occur. It is unthinkable.’ Yet what he conveniently overlooked was the fact that the FA Premier League does not construct such ludicrous barriers to entry to preclude the likes of Blackpool or Burnley from taking their place - earned on the pitch, on merit - at the top table. Tony Rowe’s criticism of certain Premiership venues included the revelation that a Premier Rugby auditor was dispatched to Sandy Park to ensure that each individual urinal is spaced a minimum of 60cm from its neighbour. If that is the case, then in the unlikely event of Welsh winning promotion and nominating Twickenham as our proposed ‘home’ venue then HQ would most likely fail to meet the criteria.
Harvey continued: ‘And yet rugby allows a system in which three of the four semi-finalists have little incentive other than to knock out the one side that could actually make it to the top and do justice to the achievement of winning the league’. Tell that to the sell-out crowd at the Mennaye this weekend. Both clubs are confident of their ability to compete with the Warriors over the two legs of the final, and neither set of players or coaches will be going out in the semi-final or final with anything other than victory in mind. It’s true that Worcester have been the dominant force in the Championship this season, but as we all know the structure of our season is all about peaking in April and May, not rewarding dominance throughout the winter: and who’s to say that Pirates, Welsh - or Bedford, for that matter - haven’t been pacing themselves, plotting and building to this point since the end of August? And with support for the Stadium For Cornwall gathering pace it’s possible that our hosts may be in a position for a viable promotion challenge within a couple of years, so success in this season’s play-offs would generate considerable momentum, particularly on the back of the 20th anniversary this month of Cornwall’s 29-20 win over Yorkshire in the County Championship final at Twickenham.
The Pirates’ supporters seem quite bullish about their prospects this weekend, and it’s easy to see where their optimism stems from. They earned a home semi-final by virtue of their 100% record in the pool stages; they finished one place and eight points above us in third position in Stage One of the league season; they beat us convincingly (22-3) on our last visit way back on the first weekend of September, while claiming a losing bonus-point in a 23-16 defeat at ODP two months later; they inflicted Worcester’s only defeat in 28 league fixtures thus far (23-21 at Sixways); and in Rob Cook they possess the Championship’s top points scorer, the full-back having amassed 336 points (nine tries, 60 conversions, 56 penalties and a drop-goal). And yet Welsh have their own reasons to travel with confidence. As Phil Greening had promised throughout the winter, we seemed to reach the play-offs in peak condition, and only an inopportune gust of wind prevented us from beating Worcester in the last game of the season at ODP; Gordon Ross, now fully recovered from the injury which blighted much of his season, had the best points-per-game average in the three play-off pools, collecting 76 points in five matches (av. 15.2) to Cook’s 74 (also from five games, av. 14.8); and while our 25 tries in the play-offs is only the fourth best (behind the other three semi-finalists) we conceded just 13, second only to Worcester who conceded a mere eight - four of them to the Welsh.
In a semi-final between two very evenly-matches sides discipline will be key. Pirates had only one player sin-binned in the group stages, hooker Dave Ward spending the final ten minutes of the campaign on the sidelines at Doncaster, while Welsh lost Shawn Pittman in the home win over Bristol and Mike Powell at Nottingham in round six - both being binned in the opening 10 minutes. In Pool A there were a total of 17 yellow cards and one red, with Bristol, Nottingham and Worcester having the worst records of the 12 clubs in the pool stages; by contrast there were only four yellow cards shown in the 12 fixtures in Pool B, with Doncaster receiving two and Bedford none at all. This Sunday’s referee, David Rose - who is apparently loathed by the good burghers of Sixways and the Mennaye, but was praised by Phil Greening for his handling of our pool match at Worcester - officiated in two games in the pool stages, showing a yellow card to Bees’ Mark Hopley in their defeat at Plymouth and awarding two penalty tries - one to Plymouth and one to the Welsh.
Despite the Pirates having home advantage many observers believe that Sunday’s semi-final is too close to call. Welsh, of course, bowed-out of the promotion race at this same stage last season, losing 28-15 at Bristol. Furthermore, while our hosts didn’t emerge from the group stages last year they do have a proven record in knockout rugby, having won the EDF National Trophy in 2007 (beating Exeter 19-16 at Twickenham) and are, for another seven days, the holders of the British & Irish Cup following their 23-16 win over Munster A at Camborne Rec last May. In league meetings in Cornwall we’ve won three and lost five, but we’d won on our last three visits prior to this season. In 2008 and 2009 those fixtures were the Pirates’ final home game of the season, and last year it was their last home game of the ‘main’ part of the Championship season. If we win on Sunday it will signal the end of their 2010-11 campaign - coincidence or fate?
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Quote:paddytaf
Mark W-J. As always so much information with incredible detail you are without doubt a legend. PADDYTAF
Thank you, Paddytaf. And may I say you are a man of impeccable taste!
Hopefully your birthday present will be the chance to write previews for two more fixtures this season....
15 Rob Cook
14 Rhodri McAttee
13 Matt Hopper
12 Tom Luke
11 Nick Jackson
10 Jonny Bentley
9 Gavin Cattle (c)
1 Paul Andrew
2 Dave Ward
3 Alan Paver
4 Mike Myerscough
5 Ben Gulliver
6 Chris Morgan
7 Sam Betty
8 Laurie McGlone
16 Carl Rimmer
17 Rob Elloway
19 Phil Burgess
18 Kyle Marriott
20 James Doherty
22 Steve Winn
21 Drew Locke
15 Aled Thomas
14 Liam Gibson
13 Hudson Tonga'uiha
12 Simon Whatling
11 Errie Claassens
10 Gordon Ross
9 Rob Lewis
1 Shawn Pittman
2 Vili Ma'asi
3 Lorne Ward
4 Mike Powell
5 Matt Corker
6 Jonathan Mills (c)
7 Mike Hills
8 Ben Russell
16 Saul Tuelson
17 Max Lahiff
18 Martin Purdy
19 Lee Beach
20 Ben Stevenson
21 Dominic Shabbo
22 Marland Yarde
TMO no try
Pirates 0-3 LW
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:05:01:17:58:01 by Blackheath Welsh.
conv kick
3-10
Half time
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:05:01:18:46:06 by Blackheath Welsh.
conv kick
10-10
conv missed
Pirates 10-10 LW
Good luck for next season - you have given us some great games this year.
Deja vu? I've seen it all before
As for those on the night sleeper, I hope you had a restful trip once the train got out of Cornwall!
Gutted.
No disrespect to the Pirates, but we should've taken them today.
Semi final this season, semi final last season. Let's go one better next season, whilst making sure our urinals are at least 60cm apart.
An exciting game to watch and a great season overall - thanks boys. I'm hoarse! We suffered from knocks during the match which required substitutions whereas all the Pirates substitutions were all unforced. We desperately missed Josh (and Errie went off at half-time) and the sides were close enough for that to have made the difference.
The grass was long, the skies lowering (and had emptied so it was not going to be a fast summer-running match). The Pirates supporter next to me said Pirates had sacrificed scrum weight for speed and they did indeed seem mobile.
Losing Pittman for the first 10 or so minutes of the second half didn't cost us any points, but possibly took its toll both on morale and the energies of the forwards as we slightly lost focus for a period. Once they had an 18-10 lead, we were, possibly, lucky they did not run away with it worse than the final score 18-10. The ref seemed OK (not that you would know it from the noise from my section of the Pirates crowd) though I thought one touch judge was a little immobile when it came to running the line. Overall a game was played in good spirit (as viewed from my vantage point behind a pillar) - will we visit Mennaye Field again for some years to come, or will they be in Truro soon?
I gather JT had recognition problems at the clubhouse - obviously being a successful British Lion doesn't count for much these days, sic transit gloria mundi.
Either way we'll enjoy playing you again next season. Trips to ODP are always enjoyable and the games close. Cheers - LP
No arguments on the final score, although the Pitman YC was apparently a bit of a mystery to all involved, and may have been crucial in the event.
Bit disappointed to hear Pirates coach and skipper say that they had targetted our last 15 mins and seconfd half blindside defence as being our weaknesses, as I'd have thought we were one of the fitter teams in the Division and our defence in general this season has been excellent.
That's certainly been one of the best LW teams I've had the pleasure to have watched; definitely best in the "professional" era.
Great season, guys; thanks.
Quote:.....rather odd that the ref was a local(ish) man and one of the TJs instructs the Pirates on the finer points of the laws regularly..... elsewhere and at another time that could lead to complications, but absolutely no complaints about the result at all.DanFW3
" The ref seemed OK (not that you would know it from the noise from my section of the Pirates crowd) though I thought one touch judge was a little immobile when it came to running the line."
And I was pleased to hear the Pirates coach say that he thought Mr Rose and his team had had a good game, in difficult conditions, when interviewed after the match. He particularly mentioned that he thought he'd done well, despite the views expressed by some of the more vocal Pirates supporters in the first half. Nice to hear.
Your chaps played a blinder and I don't think I had any fingernails left after the first half! Well played Welsh and we'll see you next season!