Match Report: Cornish Pirates 7 – 68 Exeter Chiefs

A strong performance in all aspects of the game secured Exeter Chiefs a result against Cornish Pirates at the Mennaye in the opening clash of this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup.

The first points of the game were to belong to the Devon men. Working quickly to get territory in the Pirates half, a penalty for Pirates not rolling away gave Chiefs the option of a quick tap.

Feeding the ball through the phases, a solid run from Will Rigg put them on the front foot before a couple of phases later the centre was the man to finish off the score just three minutes in. Josh Hodge slotted the conversion to begin his evening at the tee positively.

Chiefs were soon on the attack again as Paul Brown-Bampoe lay in wait for an opportunity. When Pirates spilt the bill in front of him, the winger didn’t need to be asked twice. He scooped up the ball and cantered his way past the straggling defenders to run in the try underneath the posts, giving Hodge the simple conversion.

The pacey winger had his second of the evening before 20 minutes was up. Playing with confidence in the Pirates 22, Will Haydon-Wood spotted the option of his winger on the edge. He dropped a chip kick off his boot which cleanly fell into Brown-Bampoe’s arms for him to run in the try.

What could have been a difficult conversion from five metres inside the touchline was struck cleanly from Hodge to add the extras.

Pirates got themselves on the board through fly half Bruce Houston. From the platform of a maul drive, Pirates peeled off to go into the short, repeated phases on the Chiefs line. Helped over by some forwards bodies, the half back crashed over before converting his own score.

Chiefs were immediately on the counter. Hodge quite literally leaped over for his try having broke on the edge of the Pirates 22. Pinning back the ears, his pace gave him a clean run in for the score which he then cleanly converted.

The pack was the powerhouse force that got the Chiefs next score. Battering into the Pirates defence with repeated scrums, there was a quick check needed, but the big men were judged to have touched down at the bottom of the jumble of bodies. Aptly, it was the former Pirate, Dan Frost, who was named try scorer.

There was still time for points with just a minute left in the half. Having forced his way through the line inside his own half, Rigg – brewing with confidence – backed his abilities and jinked his way around many an attempted tackle to complete the score underneath the posts.

Hodge’s conversion brought the half to an end and sealed 40 points in 40 minutes for the Chiefs.

Half-time: Pirates 7 – 40 Chiefs

It took nearly 20 minutes of the game being back underway, but the Chiefs were back on the board. Repeated scrums on the Pirates’ five metre line forced multiple infringements out of the hosts who were reduced to 14 men when Tyack was sent to the sin bin.

Scrummaging again, Stu Townsend fed his replacement half-back partner Harvey Skinner a pop pass for the fly half to crash over at the corner flag for the score.

A difficult conversion was slotted cleanly by Hodge.

From the kicking tee, to try scoring and back again. Hodge had another just after the hour when fast work in the phases fed ball to the full back. Spotting a soft shoulder, he curved around it and over for the score which he then converted himself.

It seemed as though the crowd had barely caught their breath before Chiefs had stormed their way back deep into Pirates territory. Not allowing Frost to have all the plaudits, his replacement Jack Innard – another former Pirate – got his name onto the scoreboard. Hodge once more split the uprights with the conversion.

There was one last point to be had in the match as Brown-Bampoe secured his hattrick try and despite it being a tricky conversion, Hodge secured it to end the game just two points shy of the 70-point mark.

Full-time: Pirates 7 – 68 Chiefs

Pirates: I Price-Thomas; M McNab, T Georgiou, J Elderkin, A Relton; B Houston, D Hiscocks; B Keast, H Hocking, J Tyack, C Rice, E O’Connor, J King, W Gibson, H Bokenham.

Replacements: Moody, Young, Andrews, Cannon, Agbongbon, Jones, Jenkins, Trewin

Tries: Houston Conversions: Houston

Yellow card: Tyack

Chiefs: J Hodge; P Brown-Bampoe, B Hammersley (Hawkins 64’), W Rigg, T Wyatt; W Haydon-Wood (Skinner 53’), W Becconsall (Townsend 53’); W Goodrick-Clarke (Blose 42’), D Frost (Innard 52’), E Painter (J Roots 52’), R Tuima (Bailey 64’), L Pearson, E Roots, J Vermeulen (Moloney 54’), G Fisilau.

Tries: Rigg 2, Brown-Bampoe 3, Hodge 2, Frost, Skinner, Innard Conversions: Hodge 9

Referee: Sara Cox

Attendance: 2,700