After a difficult night at Bedford last Friday, which resulted in a 43-14 Championship Cup defeat, things get no easier for Hartpury as they make the long trip south-west to play the Cornish Pirates, again in the Cup.

The Bedford result means that it is two defeats from two for the Red & Blacks in this new format. With four more group games to play between now and Christmas, nothing less than a win at the Mennaye Field will be needed to extend Hartpury’s interest in the competition.

Whilst Hartpury would almost certainly be happy to swap any sort of Cup success for a couple of league wins, it would still be a good time to reverse a sequence of defeats that now stretches back to Week 5 of the Championship season.

However, there are easier places to go looking for an elusive ‘W’ than the home of the Pirates. Despite a slight dip in results since their ultra-strong opening to the season, Pirates have tasted defeat just once on home soil in the current campaign – a 29-30 loss to Bedford, in the league, five weeks ago.

Added to which, Hartpury’s record versus the Cornishmen – since promotion to the Championship in 2017 – is not something over which the coaching staff will care to linger.

The new Cup has provided mixed outcomes for the Pirates so far, with an opening home win over Bedford being followed up by an emphatic 64-17 reversal at the hands of London Irish last time out.

Despite that most recent result, Hartpury’s Jonny Goodridge – steering the ship in partnership with senior player, Dan Murphy, throughout the Cup campaign – has no doubt about the size of the task facing his men this weekend. He said: “Sunday will be a massive challenge, down in Penzance, against a team who will be looking for huge improvement after their London Irish defeat. As we know, they have a very physical pack, an excellent kicking game and strong finishers out wide.”

The recent Cup games have seen starts in the Pirates line-up for full-back Maliq Holden who graduated last summer from Hartpury. Alongside him, in both fixtures, has been another old boy, Alex O’Meara, who moved to Pirates after finishing his degree at Hartpury in 2015, during which time he played in both BUCS and National League rugby for the Red & Blacks.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.