By Phil Western

NEXT up for the Cornish Pirates is an away game to London Scottish on Friday night (7.45pm).

All in all, it is a contest promising again to be an interesting and competitive one, as both sides will look to put aside the disappointment of narrowly losing their matches last weekend.

London Scottish ran Hartpury very close away before losing 34-33, whilst the Pirates, of course, succumbed to a last minute 29-24 defeat at home to Ealing Trailfinders.

The Cornish Pirates side shows four changes in their starting line-up for Friday. Scrum-half Dan Hiscocks, who was an early replacement for the injured Cam Jones last week, will wear the number 9 shirt, and the experienced propping pair of Billy Keast and Jay Tyack make their first league starts of the league campaign, as does lock Matt Cannon. On the bench, prop Ollie Andrews will be keen to make his first Championship appearance for the Pirates, as will scrum-half Will Rigelsford and back-rower Tomiwa Agbongbon, who has arrived on loan this week from Ealing Trailfinders.

Commenting ahead Friday’s encounter, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Alan Paver has said: “We know how these games are and if we travel and are five per cent off then you are going to get beat, so we need to make sure we have got our ducks in a row to put our game onto the pitch and see where it takes us. Also, part of this is needing to make sure the lads are not only physically prepared but are mentally as well.

“Any away game is a challenge and what London Scottish have is a lot of talented young players who are eager to perform. They are also a team that is well coached, plus they have a good surface. What you find with all these sides is that if they have good availability and have a settled week’s training then they tend to perform, and as we know it so often comes down to fine margins.

“Certainly nothing can be taken for granted, and with each team having lost narrowly last weekend both will have that extra bit of hunger to perform.”

The full Cornish Pirates selection for Friday is as follows:

CORNISH PIRATES: 15 Will Trewin 14 Robin Wedlake 13 Matt McNab 12 Joe Elderkin 11 Arthur Relton 10 Bruce Houston 9 Dan Hiscocks; 1 Billy Keast 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Jay Tyack 4 Matt Cannon 5 Eoin O’Connor 6 Josh King 7 Will Gibson 8 Hugh Bokenham (captain). Replacements: 16 Harry Hocking 17 Billy Young 18 Ollie Andrews 19 Charlie Rice 20 Tomiwa Agbongbon 21 Will Rigelsford 22 Iwan Jenkins 23 Charlie McCaig.