THE button to restart rugby action at the Mennaye Field will be pushed again tomorrow when the Cornish Pirates play their cross-Tamar opponents Plymouth Albion (2.30pm), writes Phil Westren.
The match should provide a real contest, as the Devon side, who finished fifth in National One last season, are ambitious to make a ‘sooner rather than later’ return to Championship rugby.
Pirates have included several of their new faces, including fly-half Tom Pittman and centre Ioan Evans in the starting line-up.
Other summer arrivals are named on the replacements' bench, from where two Royal Navy players who have been training with the Pirates during the period, utility back Jordan Gott and hooker Rhys Williams, are also likely to feature.
Looking both back to pre-season and forward to the match, Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle commented: “The camaraderie developed in our squad by the end of our first two phases in pre-season is a massive thing.
"They have proved themselves to be good bunch of lads, so it’ll be good to get them up and running and to witness where we are at.
“We will be able to introduce a few concepts and test them under full pressure, plus it will be a little different whereby playing a National One team we will have to adapt to the new tackle height laws expectation.
“Having said that, it is still full contact against an opposition team who we might not have played against for a while, but who are sure to be able and tough opponents, keen to test themselves against a Championship side.”
Cornish Pirates: 15 Kyle Moyle 14 Arthur Relton 13 Ioan Evans12 Joe Elderkin 11 Will Trewin 10 Tom Pittman 9 Ruaridh Dawson; 1 Jack Andrew 2 Morgan Nelson 3 Marlen Walker 4 Cory Teague 5 Will Britton 6 Ben Grubb 7 Will Gibson 9 John Stevens (captain).
Referee: Andy Wigley