Davies targets first British and Irish win in Wales for Pirates

The Cornish Pirates' quest for a first British and Irish Cup win in Wales continues this weekend.

The Cornish side were favourites to beat Newport and Cross Keys on previous trips but came away with nothing on each occasion.

This time, Swansea stand in their way and the Welsh Premiership side will be looking for retribution after suffering defeat at Mennaye Field last Sunday.

Pirates head coach Ian Davies said: "Winning in Wales has been an issue for us. We've gone there in both our previous games with confidence, against Newport and Cross Keys.

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"We have taken the lead in both but come away with nothing.

"Hopefully, what happened last week will helps us rather than hinders us. We were disappointed with what we produced when we came off the field last week.

"We've got to look at our standards of performance, week in and week out rather than playing the opposition.

"We will set our targets and then challenge ourselves."

One of those targets will be trying to win a bonus point after missing out last weekend.

Although Pirates top Pool Three, they must go through as one of the top four qualifiers from the eight pools to ensure a home quarter-final.

"We should have secured a bonus point at home – it is a lot easier to get bonus points at home compared to away," said Davies.

"We can't get caught up in that – it is about standards of performance for us and that is where we have been inconsistent all year.

"We have a good performance backed up by a mediocre performance.

"Looking at the bigger picture, we have 11 stage one games left in the Championship and three big British and Irish Cup games. That will determine how long our season goes on for.

"It doesn't matter if we are playing Swansea, Bristol, Bedford or whoever. We need to set our own standards, and if we hit those standards, we should win more games than we lose."

Pirates will make changes to their starting XV this week. Recent recruit Owen Hambly will be involved again as will Kyle Moyle, who moved to Pirates from St Ives this week.

However, loanee forward Joe Buckle is unwell and will not travel down from Bath this week. Backs Sam Hill and JJ Kilmartin are away on Under-20s international duty with England and Scotland, respectively.