The 2012–13 season was the Cornish Pirates tenth season in the second tier of the English rugby union league system, the RFU Championship and their fourth in the British and Irish Cup.

Pre–season friendlies DateOpponentsH / AResultScoreAttendanceMatch ReportRef11 AugustLoughborough Students H W 36–7 868 18 August Exeter Chiefs A L 3–56 4127 25 August Newport H W 32–18 1139

RFU Championship Stage one consists of twelve teams playing each of the other teams twice, once at home and once away, making a total of 22 games for each team. The league programme starts on Saturday, 1 September 2012 and will be completed by Saturday, 20 April 2013. The top four teams qualify for the two–legged semi–finals whilst the bottom team will be relegated to National League 1.

Stage one fixtures DateOpponentsH / AResultScoreAttendancePositionMatch ReportRef 1 1 September Jersey A W 20 – 6 2470 4th report 2 6 September Plymouth Albion H W 19 – 17 2260 3rd report 3 16 September Bristol A L 17 – 29 4613 6th 4 22 September Newcastle Falcons H L 3 – 25 1745 9th report 5 28 September Doncaster Knights A D 18 – 18 1121 8th report 6 6 October London Scottish A L 24 – 25 1126 8th report 7 27 October Leeds Carnegie H W 21 – 8 1971 7th 8 3 November Moseley A D 9 – 9 1003 7th 9 10 November Rotherham Titans H W 53 – 21 1763 6th report 10 23 November Bedford Blues A L 6 – 32 3155 7th 11 1 December Nottingham H W 11 – 10 1411 6th report 12 26 December Plymouth Albion A W 9 – 5 3058 6th 13 1 January Bristol H W 32 – 17 2954 4th 26 January Newcastle Falcons A P – P 6th 14 9 February Doncaster Knights H W 31 – 18 1309 4th 15 16 February London Scottish H L 17 – 20 1857 5th report 16 22 February Newcastle Falcons A L 3 – 50 2208 5th report 17 2 March Leeds Carnegie A L 27 – 35 1363 6th 18 9 March Moseley H W 17 – 14 1223 6th 23 March Rotherham Titans A P – P 19 30 March Bedford Blues H L 18 – 26 2032 6th 20 5 April Rotherham Titans A L 28 – 41 1012 6th report 21 14 April Nottingham A L 26 – 28 1469 6th 22 20 April Jersey H W 28 – 24 1959 6th

Stage one league table

British and Irish Cup The 2012–13 British and Irish Cup is the fourth season of the annual rugby union competition for second tier, semi-professional and professional clubs from Britain and Ireland. First round matches began on the weekend of 13 October 2012 and the final will be on the weekend of 17 May 2013. The competition consists of eight groups of four teams playing each other twice to give each team six matches. The top team in each group qualifies for the quarter–finals and the final will be played at a venue to be decided when the finalists are known. The Pirates are in Pool 3.

Group stage

DateOpponentsH / AResultScoreAttendanceMatch ReportRef14 October Carmarthen Quins H W 44 – 32 1469 20 October Dundee HSFP A W 32 – 6 400 9 December Swansea H W 27 – 9 1356 15 December Swansea A W 30 – 10 350 13 January Dundee HSFP H W 34 – 14 1536 19 January Carmarthen Quins A L 12 – 17 150 report

TeamPWDLPFPAPDTFTBLBPts Cornish Pirates 6 5 0 1 179 88 91 22 3 1 24 Carmarthen Quins 6 4 0 2 150 123 27 16 2 1 19 Swansea 6 2 0 4 98 137 –39 11 1 0 9 Dundee HSFP 6 1 0 5 84 163 –79 9 0 1 6 Points breakdown:*4 points for a win*2 points for a draw*1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less*1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Quarter–final The quarter–finals were played on the weekend of 6 April and was decided by how well each group winner performed in the group matches. This is the third time in four seasons that the two teams have met with the Pirates winning the two previous encounters. Details of the full draw can be found at 2012–13 British and Irish Cup.

DateOpponentsH / AResultScoreAttendanceMatch ReportRef7 April Munster A H L 9–10 1478

Squad 2012–13

Dual registration David Ewers (Exeter Chiefs) Lloyd Fairbrother (Exeter Chiefs) Sam Hill (Exeter Chiefs) Charles Walker–Blair (Exeter Chiefs) Rob Cook (Gloucester) Jack Yeandle (Exeter Chiefs) Lewis Vinnicombe (Redruth) Owen Hambly (Redruth) Tom Duncan (Redruth) Ashley Smith (London Welsh) Jack Nowell

Transfers 2012–13

Players in Tom Bedford (from Newcastle Falcons) Darren Berry (from Bristol) Alex Cheeseman (from London Wasps) Adam Clayton (from Birmingham & Solihull Bees) Alaifatu Junior Fatialofa (from Bristol) Kieran Hallett (from Nottingham) Gary Johnson (from London Welsh) David Lyons (from Moseley) Kyle Moyle (from St Ives) Ben Prescott (from Northampton Saints and Nottingham) Tom Riley from ( Newport Gwent Dragons) Darren Semmems (from Cornish All Blacks) Peter Joyce (from Redruth) Ben Mercer (unregistered)

Players out Rudi Brits (released) Rob Cook (to Gloucester) (dual registration from 7 September) Tom Cooper (to Jersey) Tom Cowan–Dickie (to Plymouth Albion and Exeter Chiefs, dual registration) Darren Daniel (released from contract in March 2012) David Doherty (to Leeds Carnegie) James Doherty (to Leeds Carnegie) Drew Locke (to Gloucester) Rhodri McAtee (released and moving to Plymouth Albion) Mike Myerscough (to Leeds Carnegie) Ian Nimmo (to Newport Gwent Dragons) Carl Rimmer (to Exeter Chiefs) Matt Smith (to Leeds Carnegie) Andrew Suniula (released) Ceiron Thomas (released and moving to St Ives RFC) Dave Ward (to Harlequins) Ryan Westren

Coaching staff Ian Davies () (Head Coach) from April 2012. Previously Forwards Coach appointed in April 2009. Harvey Biljon () (Backs Coach) appointed in April 2009. Simon Raynes () (Strength and Conditioning Coach) since summer 2005.

See also

2012–13 RFU Championship 2012–13 British and Irish Cup

References

External links Cornish Pirates Cornish Pirates unofficial fans site Cornish Rugby