A weather effected first half saw it 0-8 at the break, but after a strong start to the second half, Pirates pulled away and eventually took the five points in a game where the scoreline didn’t reflect how close the match was.

Both sides had good early chances but after a quarter of an hour, Pirates broke the deadlock through a Luke Scully penalty. Five minutes later, the visitors struck again as scrum-half JB Bruzlier snuck through the smallest of gaps next to the breakdown to score from five metres out. The wind ensured that Scully’s conversion sailed wide.

As the rest of the half went on, the heavens opened and then hail followed. Pirates found themselves camped in their own 22 for most of it, but the tricky conditions meant that Richmond failed to capitalise and the score remained 0-8 to the visitors at half time.

The second half started how the first ended, with Pirates stuck inside their own 22. Richmond piled on the pressure and after repeated penalties, Dan Frost was eventually sent to the bin.

With the man advantage, Richmond had their tails up. Will Kaye burst through the Pirates defence and found Jack Allcock who was tackled five meters short. Richmond engineered the overlap but Oli Evans’ pass to captain Cam Mitchell went forward as he looked to score in the corner.

Pirates cleared their lines and quickly found themselves on the attack inside the Richmond 22. They were initially held up after being camped on the Richmond line but on the second time of trying they spun it wide and Maliq Holden scored in the corner.

Despite Scully’s missed conversion, Pirates had the wind in their sails Tom Duncan muscled over shortly afterwards and Scully added the extras, 0-20.

Richmond however, refused to go down without a fight. They kept the tempo high, taking kick tap penalties to keep the visitors sharp. Eventually they got something for all their hard work as Will Kaye went over on debut, converted by Ben Cook 7-20.

With the game coming to an end, Pirates found their bonus point try as Matt Bolwell scored underneath the sticks, making it 7-27 to the visitors at full time.

The Richmond Player of the Match, sponsored by Jen Gadsby Peet, was awarded to hard-working number 8 Jesse Liston.

FINAL SCORE: RICHMOND 7 - CORNISH PIRATES 27

Richmond 7
Tries: Will Kaye (75 mins)
Conversions: Benjamin Cook (75 mins)

Cornish Pirates 27
Tries: Bruzulier (20 mins), Holden (59 mins), Duncan (66 mins), Bolwell (78 mins)
Conversions: Scully (67 mins), Bazalgette (78 mins)
Penalties: Scully (13 mins)

The full in-depth match report from Tim Forrester to follow…

Image courtesy of Dante K Photography: www.dantekphotography.com