Sportblog | The Guardian — Cornish Pirates RSS

Mar 09, 2021

Pirates' stellar win offers lessons for Eddie Jones and English rugby | Robert Kitson

The national coach says the Championship is ‘something I don’t really worry about’, but the state of a league that helps to shape tomorrow’s stars should be a concernPeople often wrongly assume rugby union is defined by weeks such as this. England v France, all the “le Crunch” hoopla, the wider Six Nations equation, the millions watching on television. It matters, of course it does, but – as any French supporter will tell you – it barely scratches the surface of what the game is truly about.It is a bit like announcing the only wine worth drinking is the stuff they pour (or used to) in Paris’s fancier restaurants. If, on the other hand, you hail from a small southern...

Apr 16, 2018

Cornwall braced for defining moment in its sporting history | Robert Kitson

Council funding of £3m needs to be approved on Tuesday so the wheels can turn on a multi-purpose Stadium for CornwallAmid the onrushing tide of worrying world news stories, the outcome of a 123-person vote in Truro’s county hall might seem relatively trivial. If you live in Cornwall or have the faintest interest in the growth of professional club rugby union, however, Tuesday is as defining a moment as any in the county’s sporting history.No pressure on Cornwall’s councillors but the decision on whether or not to approve council funding for the proposed new Stadium for Cornwall goes way beyond sport. If you had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to boost your local region’s economy, offer hope to those young athletes not...