CORNISH Pirates capitalised on a dominant pack performance to register seven tries and extend their Championship winning run to three matches.
The home scrum was so in control that skipper John Stevens repeatedly opted to pack down rather than kick penalties to touch and the confidence in his forwards was rewarded. “It’s something we’ve been working on,” said Pirates joint head coach Gavin Cattle. “It gave us that foothold in the game and we turned the screw. The physicality was there and there were some nice tries.”
With their set-piece overpowered and the line-out misfiring, it was an uphill battle that Nottingham never looked like surmounting.
Robin Wedlake opened the Pirates’ account with his first try since returning to the Mennaye Field after Jersey’s collapse, taking a pass from Ioan Evans to score in a corner.
Choosing to scrum for the third time instead of going for a corner after the visitors infringed again, Pirates pushed the Nottingham pack back over their own line and Hugh Bokenham dropped on the ball for a second try.
A break by Stevens saw Alex Schwarz involved before the ball went loose, but man-of-the-match Fin Richardson, who had given Nottingham the horrors at scrum time, snatched it up to cross for try number three.
But 30 seconds into the second half, Bruce Houston’s telegraphed pass was easily read by David Williams on the halfway line and there was no catching the Nottingham flyer on his run to the posts, leaving Morgan Bunting an easy conversion.
Houston’s 50-22 put Pirates back on the offensive and Stevens opted for two more penalty scrums before Alex Schwarz whipped the ball out for centre Joe Elderkin to cross for the bonus-point try.
A second sloppy interception gift, with replacement Tom Pittman the guilty party this time, enabled Joe Woodward to run 50 metres and reduce Nottingham’s deficit to 26-12. But any thoughts of a comeback were snuffed out four minutes later when Houston provided the pass for S
