THE Cornish Pirates fell to their heaviest defeat of the season as their hosts ran out comfortable 47-10 winners.

The Pirates headed to Oxfordshire having narrowly lost to Bedford Blues last time out, but the Villagers ran in seven tries to send the visitors home without anything to show for their efforts.

Chinnor’s director of rugby is former England No.8 Nick Easter and went into the day in seventh as they enjoy their second season in the second-tier.

For the Pirates, they made just one change in their backs for this fixture, with Matty Ward making a return on the wing in place of Harry Yates, who dropped to the bench. As for the pack, a fresh pair of prop forwards were selected to start, namely Alessandro Heaney and Ollie Andrews. Heaney featured as a replacement against Bedford Blues, replacing Billy Young, whilst Andrews was making a first start in the league this season in place of Alfie Petch.

In good conditions, the home side began well and opened their scoring in the ninth minute. After taking play to the right, the ball was then quickly worked left from where their experienced hooker Alun Walker moved the ball audaciously back through his legs, to quickly enable centre Sam Hanks to score near the posts. Fly-half Nathan Chamberlain added the extras.

Chinnor were certainly enjoying the best of the opening exchanges, with former ‘Pirate’ Harry Dugmore and wing Freddie Owsley, who has played for Scotland 7s, to the fore. They would also add to their tally with two more converted tries. The first was scored off a driving maul by their scrum-half and skipper Luke Carter, whilst the second followed an enterprising run by another former Pirates’ player, South African wing Kieran Goss, which was scored by centre James Bourton.

Half an hour on the clock and the Pirates had little or nothing to shout about, before a chase by wing Arthur Relton and shortly after a well- controlled drive to the line, ended with hooker Morgan Nelson scoring their first try in the match. Fly-half Arwel Robson was unable to add the conversion.

Before the break, ‘The Villagers’ managed though to secure a four-try bonus-point through the impressive Walker, whose unconverted try made it 26-5.

The Pirates were left having much to think about during the interval, as their general performance thus far had seen them make little impact with limited possession, plus a few too many errors had been made.

A couple of early penalty awards at the start of the second 40 gave hope that fortune for the visitors was about to change, plus with back-rowers Matt Cannon and Tomi Agbongbon making dents in the opposition defence, and with prop Alessandro Heaney doing good work on the ground, perhaps things could improve. But no.

Chinnor full-back Toby Cousins was an eager performer when given the opportunity, and after being tackled on the line and the ball moved right, it was Dugmore who scored a converted try to the immediate left of the posts.

With the floodlights on there was now a bit of a mountain to climb for the forlorn Pirates, but they did score their second and final try of the match when alert replacement wing Ben Cambriani gathered Robson’s pinpoint kick to the right corner.

A Pirates error gifted Carter his second converted try of the game and overcoming the deficit was now simply too much to ask. As it worked out, Chinnor’s seventh and final try, and the sixth converted by Chamberlain, was scored by Cousins to the delight of much of the 2,231-strong crowd.

In conclusion, credit must be given to Chinnor, as the Pirates now look to dust themselves down and prepare for the visit of league leaders Ealing Trailfinders to the Mennaye Field on Saturday (2.30pm).

CHINNOR: 15 Toby Cousins; 14 Kieran Goss, 13 Sam Hanks, 12 James Bourton, 11 Freddie Owsley; 10 Nathan Chamberlain, 9 Luke Carter (capt); 1 Kai Owen, 2 Alun Walker, 3 Robin Hardwick; 4 Jamie Campbell, 5 Conor Brockschmidt; 6 Harry Dugmore, 7 Will Cave, 8 Scott Hall. Replacements: 16 Luke Thompson, 17 Ramaz Rukhadze, 18 Lawson Porter, 19 Chris Moore, 20 Monty Loggerberg, 21 Callum Pascoe, 22 Thomas Watson, 23 Cameron Rafferty.

Tries: Carter (2), Hanks, Bourton, Walker, Dugmore, Cousins; Convs: Chamberlain (6); Pens: N/A.

CORNISH PIRATES: 15 Louie Sinclair; 14 Arthur Relton,13 Chester Ribbons, 12 Joe Elderkin, 11 Matty Ward; 10 Arwel Robson, 9 Dan Hiscocks (capt); 1 Alessandro Heaney, 2 Morgan Nelson, 3 Ollie Andrews; 4 Charlie Rice, 5 Alfie Bell; 6 Matt Cannon, 7 Josh King, 8 Tomi Agbongbon. Replacements: 16 Matt Pritchard, 17 Billy Young, 18 James French, 19 Rory Suttor, 20 Luke Ratcliff, 21 Will Rigelsford, 22 Harry Yates, 23 Ben Cambriani.

Tries: Nelson, Cambriani; Convs: N/A; Pens: N/A.