Cornish Pirates - Exeter Chiefs contest at Sandy Park

Playing Exeter Chiefs away in their second pre-season friendly proved worthy for the Cornish Pirates who will learn much from the contest against their strong Premiership opponents, writes Phil Westren. 

Played in front of an apparent near 8,000 crowd, this match was a second of the afternoon for the home team’s large squad at Sandy Park, where in a double-header they had firstly seen off London Scottish 45-19.

After Exeter showed their scrum power early in the match, the Pirates too showed strength through the tackling of their skipper John Stevens, which drew admiration from the crowd.

There was much to commend in the positivity shown by the visitors in the first quarter, including strong carrying from lock Hugh Bokenham. However, it was the hosts who would soon open their account with an unconverted try scored by wing Paul Brown-Bampoe in the right-hand corner.

Then, just three minutes later, a quite superb 50 plus metres run from hooker Dan Frost, who was one of several familiar faces in the Exeter team’s ranks, sent up a try for his battle-hardened skipper Jacques Vermeulen. Fly-half Harvey Skinner was again luckless with his conversion attempt.

Play initially created by scrum-half Cam Jones, with Stevens, wing Robin Wedlake and full-back Will Trewin to the fore, provided some spark for the Pirates, and after the Chiefs strived to counter it was a sudden interception by wing Arthur Relton that saw the flying Pirate score at the posts. Fly-half Bruce Houston added the extra two points.

The Cornish side would not score again in the first forty, and they could almost be forgiven for looking a little forlorn when the Devon outfit hit back with four more tries through centre Zack Wimbush, wing Olly Woodburn, and the impressive Brown-Bampoe who completed his hat-trick. Skinner was relieved to convert the final two.

Exeter’s physicality and scrummaging was again noted into the second period, as the Pirates found it difficult to impose themselves. Having said that, they did get back into the match and show credentials after Chiefs’ centre Will Rigg had kicked ahead and chased well to score a converted try.

It was hooker Morgan Nelson who was identified as the scorer of the Pirates second five-pointer following a build of pressure on the left, and next on the scoresheet after latching onto scrum half Dan Hiscocks’ deft short pass was centre Harry Yates.

The Chiefs stormed back with a try scored by replacement Lucas Dorrell but would lose skipper Vermeulen to the sin bin for a head-on-head clash with Pirates’ prop James French.

The Pirates suffered several injuries but having the last say and outscoring their opponents in the second half it was good work from replacement Matt McNab that saw Iwan Price-Thomas score a try converted by Iwan Jenkins.

Speaking at the end of the game, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle said: “Playing a Premiership outfit like Exeter Chiefs was naturally a step up. They are a quality team, and I think their physicality, especially in attack, was ruthless, but there are some fixups from our point of view.

“In our stage of development this game probably came just a little bit early, but it provided a good measuring stick and though it was evident there are areas where we knew we were deficient in, and we need to work on, you could never doubt our commitment."