The Cornish Pirates will welcome Doncaster Knights to the Mennaye Field on Sunday for their opening game in this season’s Greene King IPA Championship (kick-off 2.30pm), writes Phil Westren.

Matches between the Pirates and the Knights are often high-scoring and entertaining affairs, so it’s a game not to be missed.

In their pre-season fixtures the Yorkshire side comfortably beat Sale FC 47-21 but lost two games against Premiership opposition – 31-0 at Sale Sharks and 47-26 at home to Newcastle Falcons.

Included in the three wins achieved by the Cornish Pirates during their pre-season was a super 29-21 result against Exeter Chiefs.

Following that fixture the club’s COO, Robin James, said: “We would like to thank all our fans and sponsors for a terrific night when we played Exeter Chiefs. It was memorable for many reasons and we hope you all had a good time and enjoyed the great performance our team put on.

“Health, safety and wellbeing is an extremely important aspect in everything we do at the Cornish Pirates, on and off the field. We focus on this every day and it was especially pleasing to have everyone enjoy themselves at the Mennaye and leave safe.

"This couldn’t have been achieved without the support of Dawn Bailey and her team at Cornwall County Council, we worked in partnership with them to ensure our health & safety is of the highest standards.

“Because of the sell-out some Cornish Pirates fans went without a ticket which is very disappointing and something we want to rectify by working closely with Dawn and her team to increase our capacity.

"Thank-you to those who have already contacted us to volunteer as stewards, we urgently need more stewards to help us increase our capacity and would greatly appreciate more volunteers.

"You get to be part of a fantastic team on match day, we provide a meal and beverage voucher and we will train you to achieve your NVQ2 qualification which means you will be able to cover other events. Please contact info@cornish-pirates.com to volunteer as a steward.

“Ticket sales are going well for this coming Sunday’s first league match of the season at home against Doncaster Knights, so thank-you to all those who have already bought tickets.

"Your support made a huge difference to help our team beat the Exeter Chiefs and keep a clean sheet in the second half, and we now need your support to ensure we get the Championship season off to a flyer. Please bring a friend and help fill the Mennaye once more!’’

Tickets for Sunday’s game will be available at the gates on the day (open 12.30pm), whilst in the meantime they can be purchased either through the ticket office, telephone 01736-331961, or on-line.

The ticket office is open Monday to Friday, from 9am until 12 noon. For further information please visit www.cornish-pirates.com/tickets