Cornish Pirates

Full name	Penzance and Newlyn Rugby Football Club
Union	Cornwall RFU
Founded	1945; 80 years ago (1945)
Location	Penzance,Cornwall,England
Ground	Mennaye Field (Capacity: 4,000 (2,200 seated))
Chairman	Paul Durkin
Coach(es)	Gavin Cattle Alan Paver
Captain	John Stevens
League	Champ Rugby
2024–25	4th
Teamkit
Official website
cornish-pirates.com

TheCornish Pirates (Cornish:An Vorladron Gernewek) are a professionalrugby union team who play in theChamp Rugby, the second level of the English rugby union pyramid, and are the premierCornish rugby club. The Cornish Pirates team are the 'First XV' of thePenzance & Newlyn Rugby Football Club, and play and train at their home ground, theMennaye Field inPenzance.^[1]

At the end of the 2004–05 season the Pirates finished in 4th position in National Division 1 which at the time was their highest league position since ownerDicky Evans became president and just three places below Premiership rugby status.

In 2005 the Pirates moved away from their home atThe Mennaye in Penzance to a temporary 6,000-capacityKenwyn Rugby Ground, nearTruro.^[2] In examining the options it had been viewed as imperative to increase the support base which led to a difficult decision forDicky Evans and the supporters of the Pirates, as to whether the team should relocate to another site to play their home matches or not. The questions, concerns and sentiments arising from the proposals were thoroughly debated in the clubhouse and elsewhere. However, on 27 May 2005 at an emergency meeting held in a packed St Johns Hall the innovative plans were passed. They included:

• Relocating to a new temporary site at Kenwyn,Truro for the 2005–06 season.
• Re-branding including changing the club's name to the Cornish Pirates.
• Upgrading all the facilities at the Mennaye Field which will continue to act as the permanent training base for the Cornish Pirates.
• The Mennaye to continue to act as the playing home for the Pirates mini and junior sections andMounts Bay RFC.

Following the vote,Dicky Evans told members: "ten years ago I asked you to support me in taking this club into the professional era. At that time there were those were totally against this move, there are people that are against this latest move. However, it is my belief that we must try this venture". He expressed his personal happiness at the support expressed for the move and regarded it as a step towards a Premiership rugby club in Cornwall.

Following a highly successful 2005–06 season, (when crowds were increased and the Pirates finished 3rd in Division 1), it was decided to relocate again and over the next two seasons the Cornish Pirates played their home rugby matches atCamborne RFC's recreation ground.^[3] Camborne's ground is seen as many to be the best rugby ground inCornwall boasting a superb grandstand. On 15 April 2007, the Cornish Pirates won the EDF Energy National Trophy at Twickenham for the first time in the club's history, againstExeter Chiefs. The score was 19–16.

The Pirates returned toThe Mennaye for the2010–11 season and remain there to date.

After the success of the 2006–07 cup win, the hope was that the club's ambition could finally be realised. This hope was hampered by the loss of Viliami Ma'asi andAlberto Di Bernardo (toLeeds), these losses were offset in some degree by the signing ofCanadian international scrum halfEd Fairhurst, former England U21 centreSimon Whatling fromWorcester and seasoned professionalRob Elloway fromGloucester. At first the results were not good but after the World Cup the team began to pick up and were joined by one of the stars of the tournamentTongan full back;Vunga Lilo. Unfortunately the side couldn't live with the newly relegatedNorthampton Saints and were unlucky to draw them in the 1st round of the cup, going down 15–3 at home.

In2009–10 the Pirates won the inauguralBritish and Irish Cup, beatingMunster A 23–14 in the final at the Recreation Ground, Camborne.

Pirates remain a solidRFU Championship side, their lowest finish since being 9th in2015–16, with highs of 3rd in2010–11 and2011–12. These 3rd-place finishes resulted in Pirates qualifying for the promotion play-offs. In 2010-11 Pirates beatLondon Welsh in the semi-final 18–10 at theMennaye Field before succumbing toWorcester Warriors in the final over two legs, 12–21 at home and 25–20 away, 46–32 on aggregate, resulting in Worcester's promotion back to theAviva Premiership. The following season the Pirates again won their semi-final, beatingBristol over two legs, 45–24 at home and losing 29–18 away, resulting in a 63–53 win on aggregate. Pirates again however lost in the final, this time toLondon Welsh, losing 21–37 at the Mennaye and 29–20 away from home, 66–41 on aggregate.

Following these highs, Pirates did not finish in the play-off places again, finishing between 6th and 9th in the subsequent seasons. They returned to the top four in the2017–18 season, finishing 4th, however a restructure to the league for that season had seen the play-offs abolished, with 1st place being promoted to thePremiership automatically.

To be promoted to the Premiership a team must meet certain stadium requirements, and the capacity of theMennaye Field is too small to meet these. Because of this, there have been many plans over the years for the Pirates to move into a new, larger stadium which meets these requirements to allow the Pirates to achieve their goal of promotion to the Premiership. The most concrete of these plans is the proposedStadium for Cornwall, which would be home for both the Pirates andTruro City Football Club.^[4] The Stadium For Cornwall has received funding from Cornwall Council, and is now only awaiting £3m of funding from the UK government before construction can begin, which is expected to be provided in Spring 2019.^[5] The first stage is planned to have a capacity of 6,000, which can be expanded to 10,000 in phase two in the event of the Pirates being promoted.

A number of promotions at the beginning of the 21st century saw the Pirates rise from south-west regional rugby all of the way up to thesecond division. The re-brand from Penzance & Newlyn to the Cornish Pirates for the 2005–06 season, along with relocating fromPenzance toTruro, meant that the club was not only the highest ranked in the county but also the best supported, having doubled its supporter base in just over five seasons. A further move toCamborne the next season saw attendances continued to flourish, rising to a peak of 3,011 per game during the 2009–10 season.

A move back to Penzance during the 2010–11 season heralded a steady decline in attendances, although as the county's only professional team the club still was easily the best supported. Despite their higher status, the Pirates continued to enjoy good relations with neighbouring clubs such asRedruth andCamborne, often playing home matches on Sunday so that supporters of those clubs can also attend games at the Mennaye Field. It is hoped that the proposed move back to Truro to the proposedStadium for Cornwall will see an upturn in the club's fortunes and bring the supporters back.

• Cornwall Cup winners (3): 1975–76, 1998–99, 1999–00^{[a 22]}
• Cornwall & Devon champions: 1989–90
• South West Division 2 champions: 1996–97^[16]
• South West Division 1 champions: 1998–99^[17]
• National League 3 South champions:2001–02
• National League 2 champions:2002–03
• EDF Energy National Trophy winners: 2006–07
• British and Irish Cup winners:2009–10^[18]
• RFU Championship runners up:2010–11,2011–12

^[19]

Highest attendance – 6,487

At home to Northampton Saints on 9 September 2007 (Recreation Ground,Camborne).^[20]

Highest average attendance (league) — 3,486

Achieved during the2007–08 season

The Cornish Pirates squad for the2024–25 season.^{[21][a][b][c]}

Note: Flags indicate national union underWorld Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union Harry Hocking Hooker England Sol Moody[a] Hooker England Matt Pritchard Hooker England Ollie Andrews Prop England James French Prop Ireland Billy Keast Prop England Oisin Michel Prop Ireland Jay Tyack Prop England Billy Young Prop England Alfie Bell[a] Lock England Hugh Bokenham Lock Australia Matt Cannon Lock England Milo Hallam Lock England Eoin O'Connor[b] Lock Ireland Charlie Rice Lock England Tomiwa Agbongbon[c] Back row United States Hallam Chapman[a] Back row England Fintan Coleman Back row Ireland Barnaby Elderkin Back row England

Player Position Union Alex Everett Back row England Josh King Back row England John Stevens Back row England Dan Hiscocks Scrum-half Wales Cameron Jones Scrum-half Scotland Will Rigelsford Scrum-half England Joe Elderkin Fly-half England Bruce Houston Fly-half Ireland Iwan Jenkins[a] Fly-half England Arwel Robson Fly-half Wales Tom Georgiou Centre England Charlie McCaig[a] Centre England Chester Ribbons[a] Centre England Harry Yates Centre England Matthew McNab Wing Zimbabwe Arthur Relton Wing England Robin Wedlake Wing England Iwan Price-Thomas Fullback England Will Trewin Fullback England

This list of "famous" or "notable" peoplehas no clearinclusion orexclusion criteria. Please helpimprove this article by defining clear inclusion criteria to contain only subjects that fit those criteria.(June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Joe Bearman
• Stack Stevens
• Rob Thirlby
• Will James
• Blair Cowan
• Dave Ward
• Bertie Hopkin
• Oscar Osir
• Dicky Evans

• Cornwall RFU
• Newlyn RFC
• Penzance RFC

• Official website
• Unofficial Fans site & Forum
• Camborne RFCArchived 5 December 2006 at theWayback Machine
• Trelawny's Army
• London Cornish RFC – for those living in London missing Cornish Rugby!
• Cornish Pirates on itsrugby.co.uk

• Cornish Pirates
• Rugby union teams in Cornwall
• Rugby clubs established in 1945
• 1945 establishments in England
• Sport in Penzance

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