A TOTAL of nine changes have been made to the Cornish Pirates starting line-up as they return to Greene King IPA Championship action on Sunday.

Nottingham travel to the Mennaye for the first game in the competition since October 4 after a break for British & Irish Cup pool matches to be played.

From their last outing against Cross Keys two weeks ago, the Pirates have made nine alterations to their starting XV with a series of regular names returning.

These include fly-half Kieran Hallett, scrum-half Tom Kessell, right winger Kieran Goss, number eight Laurie McGlone and lock Darren Barry.

Joining the latter in the second row will be Will Carrick Smith who featured for his parent club Exeter Chiefs in last week's LV Cup victory over Gloucester.

Fellow Chiefs dual-registration players Laurence May, Tom Hendrickson, Max Bodilly and Stuart Townsend also feature in the Pirates matchday squad after being involved with their parent club last week.

Marcus Garratt will start from the bench after scoring a try for Bath while on loan at the Aviva Premiership club last week in the LV Cup against London Welsh.

A familiar face will be in the away dug-out as ex-Pirate star Martin Haag is head coach of Nottingham.

He was also in charge of the Championship XV who beat Canada on Sunday which saw Kessell, Barry and Hallett represent the side.

CORNISH PIRATES: 15 Laurence May, 14 Kieran Goss, 13 Tom Riley, 12 Tom Hendrickson, 11 Max Bodilly, 10 Kieran Hallett, 9 Tom Kessell; 1 Paul Andrew, 2 Tom Channon, 3 Alan Paver, 4 Will Carrick Smith, 5 Darren Barry, 6 Chris Morgan (c), 7 Alex Cheesman, 8 Laurie McGlone.

REPS: 16 Dean Brooker, 17 Jack Andrew, 18 Kieran Davies, 19 Marcus Garratt, 20 Joe Atkinson, 21 Stuart Townsend, 22 Alex Dancer.