SEDGLEY TIGERS 13
CORNISH PIRATES 20
 
National Division One
 
ONE of these days the Tigers are going to turn over a top flight team; it just wasn’t meant to be on this occasion.

It didn’t start that well for the home side with the Pirates going 0-3 up inside five minutes, thanks to a Gareth Steenson penalty.

Both defences were then tested before Ollie Thomas pounced on a wayward clearance kick on 27 minutes before waltzing through some poor Sedgley tackling, with Steenson stepping up to kick the extras to stretch the lead to 0-10.

The Tigers then suffered another blow when influential scrum-half Jamie Albinson was stretchered off and taken to hospital with a neck injury on the half-hour.

However, a Phil Jones penalty ensured the Tigers were on the scoreboard at the break and nine minutes after the re-start he slotted over a second, this time from 40 metres, to make it 6-10.

The Pirates then forced the Tigers onto the back foot once more and the pressure created an opportunity for Steenson on 63 minutes, who managed to wriggle out of several tackles to claim his side’s second touchdown, which he then converted himself to make it 6-17.

With 10 minutes to go Jones broke away, backed up by replacement Freeman Payne. The move was carried on by Andy Craig who ghosted through the Pirates defence before slipping a pass to Payne who crashed over by the posts to give Jones a straight forward two-pointer to move the score onto 13-17.

Just as the Tigers were threatening to overrun the visitors, Tim Cowley broke through the home defence and was halted illegally 40 metres out from the Tigers’ posts, and up stepped Steenson to bang over the three-pointer to make it 13-20.

The Tigers continued to pressure but ultimately had to make do with another losing bonus point – again! – when they could and should have beaten a top-four team. 
 
SEDGLEY PARK: Riley, Hall, Craig, Briers (Payne 36), Van DeVenter (Livesey 76), Jones, Albinson (Leck 30), Gazzola, Roddam, Halsall (Du Plessis 59), Fourie, Norris, Newton (Crous 62), Ponton, Skurr. 
Replacements not used: Birchall and Keys.
Tries: Payne (69)
Conversions: Jones 1
Penalties: Jones 2
 
CORNISH PIRATES: Thomas, Moore, Devlin (McAtee 28), Buckley, Koko, Steenson, Bolt (Fairhurst 50), Cook (Paver 50), Elloway (Kemp 50), Seal, Beardshaw (Cumming 62), Senekal, Cowley, Motusaga (Cracknell 63), Evans.
Replacements not used: Parsons.
Tries: Thomas (27) and Steenson (63)
Conversions: Steenson 2
Penalties: Steenson 2