Pirates beat Rotherham 40-21 to get their first away win of the season

Cornish Pirates travelled ‘Up North’ on Sunday to face Rotherham Titans and, after recording their first win on the road this season – and bagging a bonus point – they moved up to fourth in the league table after the 40-21 triumph.

Promoted back to the Championship after eight years away last time out, the Titans, whose Director of Rugby is former Pirates’ coach Harvey Biljon, have been quick to find their feet and were expected to provide tough opposition.

One change in the backs for the Cornish Pirates saw a welcome return for Chester Ribbons, whilst in the forwards fit-again Milo Hallam was selected to partner Josh King in the second row and Morgan Nelson was named as the starting hooker.

Former Pirates’ scrum half ‘JB’ Bruzulier was one to watch in the home side, and he was quick to display his cloud-seeking kicks out of hand.

His side also opened the scoring after a quarter of an hour when, following a penalty award, fly-half Russell Bennett posted the ball left to touch. From the resultant line-out hooker Morgan Veness found the hands of flanker John Okafor and, in a blink of an eye, the team’s former rugby league man, No. 8 Callum Bustin, opened the scoring with a try that centre Lloyd Hayes converted.

It was a lead the Titans deserved. However, getting more into the game the Pirates would respond, with Ribbons to the fore, and wing Arthur Relton then spotted space to take advantage of, which he did to score a try under the posts and Robson added the extra two.

The Pirates were now much sharper, with skipper Alex Everett setting his usual example and Relton once again showing his pace and running skills.

Forwards Hugh Bokenham and Alfie Petch were making their mark and it led to Robson scoring and converting his own try.

Bokenham was the next man to score with a converted try to the right of the posts, and at the break the scoreline read 21-7 in favour of the Pirates.

At the start of the second 40 it was the Titans applying the pressure but the Pirates broke away through wing Henry Palmer to register another converted try.

A response by the Titans saw full-back Isaac Shaw run brilliantly into the Pirates’ ‘22’, and close to the line it was hard-working prop Zac Nearchou who went over.

Scrum time was going well for the Pirates, as was their line-out and driving maul. Second rower Josh King was putting in a man of the match performance and it was hooker Morgan Nelson who next scored for the Cornish side.

Then Wing Ben Cambriani, who featured for the Pirates last year, took his opportunity to cross the line for the Titans’ third try, to which Hayes again added the extras.

But the visitors hot back again through replacement hooker Matt Pritchard who scored after a controlled 10m drive to the line. Replacement Angus Mawson’s conversion attempt was also successful to post a final score of 40-21 in favour of the much-pleased Pirates.

Speaking at the end of the game, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle said: “I’m really chuffed with the way the boys stuck to task, and after a long journey our energy levels were impressive.

“The conditions were not easy, and we were aware of their scrum half JB Bruzulier’s box kicking, but we dealt with things well and our response tactically was really pleasing.

“Our intent this week was to play through for the space to open up and having come through the first block of games we were looking to add to our game, which is something we’ll continue to do.”