Cornish Pirates ship record 73 points in Coventry shootout
Cornish Pirates shipped a club-record 73 points in a frantic 73-40 defeat at Coventry on Saturday 26 September. The Rugby Champ clash, in English rugby union's second tier, produced 18 tries in all, according to Cornish Pirates.
Coventry scored 11 of them. The 73 points conceded passed the Pirates' previous worst in the division, a 69-8 loss to Worcester Warriors in April 2015, according to BBC Sport.
Joint-head coach Gavin Cattle said his side are not as bad as the scoreline suggests. He pointed to a disrupted build-up and a costly spell with two men off the field.
The Pirates actually struck first. Dan Hiscocks gave them a 10th-minute lead. Coventry then hit back hard and fast. The visitors were 33-7 down after 27 minutes and staring at a rout.
They refused to fold before the break. Milo Hallam, Alessandro Heaney and Harry Ascherl all crossed for tries, worth five points each for grounding the ball over the line, in the final 20 minutes of the first half. That flurry cut the gap to 33-26 at half-time and briefly changed the mood.
The preparation had been messy. Centre Joe Elderkin was injured in the warm-up. Chester Ribbons had already been lost late in the week. Josh Radcliffe shifted into midfield to partner Ascherl, with Finn Love filling in on the wing.
The game ran away from the Pirates early in the second half. Fly-half Arwel Robson and replacement forward Matt Cannon were yellow-carded within three minutes of each other. Each card means 10 minutes in the sin-bin, leaving the team short-handed. Coventry pounced with five tries in a 13-minute spell around those absences.
Pirates kept scoring to their credit. Matt Pritchard and Jamie Clark added late tries to take the visitors to 40 points. On most days, that is enough to win away from home.
For fans, this leaves a strange takeaway. The attack fired and produced six tries. The defence leaked line breaks in clusters, especially when down to 13 men. Cattle's challenge now is to prove that one record afternoon was the exception, not the pattern.
