Doncaster were defeated 27-10 on a wet and windy day at Mennaye Field this afternoon.

Despite a positive start that saw the visitors take a slim lead, it was three first half tries that turned the balance of the game in Cornish Pirates’ favour.

A battling performance after the restart saw the away side score the try their efforts deserved, but it was not enough to leave Penzance with any points.

The Knights started on the back foot with the Pirates dominating possession and field territory. However, it was the visitors that put the first points on the board through a well taken Sam Olver penalty.

Although that did not halt the home side’s control on the game with Callum Patterson scoring after 13 minutes after Olver’s kick was blocked by Josh Caulfield. The ball bounced favourably for the Cornish centre, who was the quickest to the ball and dotted down in the corner.

On the 21st minute mark, the Pirates doubled their lead through Patterson again as an overload presented itself in the right corner with a last ditch Lloyd Hayes tackle not enough to stop the try.

Doncaster continue to battle and showed plenty of endeavour, but were unable to make any real threat to the Cornish try line. Three minutes before half time, winger Alex O’Meara darted away from Sam Pocklington and Hayes to make the score line 17-3 after Javier Alvarez slotted away his first conversion of the afternoon.

After the interval, the Knights rallied and began to show their character as they dominated possession, but couldn’t make it out of their own half in much of the opening 15 minutes.

On the 60 minute mark, the home side turned the balance of the game once again as Patterson barged over for his hat-trick after several pick and goes. Alvarez hit the conversion well wide to make the score 22-3.

That spurred the visitors on once more, as they pushed up the field through a Charlie Foley penalty. However, the Pirates remained strong in the defence and pushed Clive Griffiths’ side back into their half once more.

Doncaster continued to battle on though and deservedly got a try for their valiant efforts. An excellent break from Foley in the Pirates 22, gave him time to offload to replacement Reiss Cullen, who in turn passed to on running Joe Sproston to dot down. Foley then converted to make the deficit 22-10 with 10 minutes remaining.

A good chance for a second soon came when Kyle Evans broke away over the halfway line. The winger saw Cullen in support, but the scrum-half failed to collect the pass and the attack was soon squashed.

The Pirates ended the game with another try to put a dampener on Doncaster’s second half display as O’Meara slided over in the corner after a wide pass to make the final score 27-10.

Match Statistics

Cornish Pirates: 15. Kyle Moyle 14. Alex O’Meara 13. Rory Parata 12. Callum Patterson 11. AJ Cant 10. Javier Rojas Alvarez 9. Alex Schwarz 1. Hayden King 2. Tom Channon 3.Jay Tyack 4. Danny Cutmore 5. Brett Beukeboom (c) 6. Josh Caulfield 7. Antonio Kiri Kiri 8. James McRae

Replacements:16. Dan Frost 17. Jack Andrew 18. Craig Mitchell 19. Fa’atiga Lemalu 20. Paddy Ryan 21. Rhodri Davies 22. Shae Tucker 23. Harry Davey

KNIGHTS XV: 15. Lloyd Hayes 14. Kyle Evans 13. Jack Roberts 12. Charlie Foley 11. Tyson Lewis 10. Sam Olver(63’Cowell) 9. Sam Pocklington(51’Cullen) 1. Marc Thomas 2. Will Holling(54’Edgson) 3. Andrew Foster(61’Suter) 4. Morgan Eames 5. Matt Smith (c) 6. Will Britton(27’Sproston) 7. Fotu Lokotui 8. Guido Volpi

Replacements: 16. George Edgson 17. Robin Hislop 18. Dan Suter 19. Ben Hunter 20. Joe Sproston 21. Reiss Cullen 22. Steve McColl 23. Cameron Cowell

Tries: Sproston

Conversions: Foley

Penalties: Olver