Cornish Pirates to face Richmond in Championship opener

Pirates will host Richmond on the opening day for the second successive season - two Callum Sirker tries helped them win 33-18 last year

Cornish Pirates will begin their 2022-23 Championship season against Richmond at home on the weekend of 10 September.

The Pirates, who finished third in the second tier last season, travel to Nottingham in their first away game a week later.

Champions Ealing visit the Mennaye in the first weekend of December.

Newly-crowned National One champions Caldy will face the Pirates four times having been drawn in the same Championship Cup pool.

Richmond and Ampthill round off the club's cup group, with three pool games set to be played in November and three more in February.

There will be 22 rounds of league games this season with the Championship reverting to 12 teams after Caldy's promotion and Ealing not meeting the ground requirements for promotion to the Premiership.