Championship Cup: Cornish Pirates 24-35 Jersey Reds - Islanders keep double hopes alive

Cornish Pirates were unable to keep pace with Jersey as the game qwore on

Jersey Reds remain on course for a league and cup double after winning 35-24 at Cornish Pirates in their Championship Cup semi-final.

Will Brown's early try was matched by Will Crane soon after, but Eoghan Clarke restored Jersey's lead before Arthur Relton's try on half-time.

Jersey got a penalty try shortly after the restart, but Rory Parata replied before Brown got his second Reds try.

Ben Woollett's long-range score with 13 minutes to go sealed the Jersey win.

Alex Schwarz scored a consolation for the Pirates in the final seconds - which could be crucial in deciding where the final is played.

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Jersey - who clinched their first-ever Championship title last week - will face the winners of Saturday's second semi-final between Ealing and Doncaster next weekend.

The date and venue has yet to be determined, with the side with the highest winning margin from the two semi-finals hosting the final.

Jersey took just 80 seconds to take the lead with their first touch of the ball as Carwyn Penny's kick was charged down on his own 40-metre line and Brown raced on to score.

Pirates hit back soon after as Crane was forced in from a close-range line-out in what proved to be their only meaningful foray into the Jersey half until the final minute of the opening period.

Jersey dominated the possession and territory, but only had Clarke's 23rd-minute pushover score to show for it, as a combination of dogged Pirates defending and poor Jersey handling kept the score down.

Reds had Scott van Breda sin-binned for foul play two minutes from the break, and a minute later Relton raced under the posts after a fine break from halfway by Parata in the gap that Van Breda would have filled.

James Scott had a try for Jersey early in the second half chalked off after he stepped over the dead ball line as he went to score, but the Reds did go ahead six minutes after the break through a penalty try after Marlen Walker brought down a maul on his own line and the Pirates prop went to the sin bin.

Soon after, Jersey replacement Tom Everard was stretchered off in a lot of pain with an awful-looking ankle injury that needed 15 minutes of treatment after a tackle by Ben Grubb.

Everard needed a lot of medical intervention after his injury early in the second half

With Jersey's minds seemingly still on their stricken team-mate Pirates were able to get within two points as Parata went over after multiple phases on the Reds' line, but almost directly from the kick-off Reds restored their nine-point lead as Brown went over in the left corner after a pinpoint long pass.

Woollett capitalised on some poor Pirates handling to race over for Jersey's fifth try before replacement Schwarz ended a fine flowing break by the Pirates in stoppage time to give the home crowd a final cheer as their side's season came to an end.

Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle told BBC Sport:

"I think it came down to scrum dominance a little bit in terms of field position and two intercepts - the second one if the pass was to hand we go under the sticks.

"Jersey are league champions for a reason, they showed their strength at set-piece and that always gave them a handle on field position.

"But I'm pretty proud of where we've progressed from Christmas, we looked dangerous on the ball when we had possession, and I've got to say this group of lads have been a pleasure to coach this year.

"Every season brings some sad times with people leaving, and some of those boys have been at the club for a while, and they've done themselves proud tonight."

Jersey Reds director of rugby Harvey Biljon told BBC Sport:

"We came up against a pretty fired up Pirates team with a crowd really getting behind them and to be honest I don't really know how we got through that, we found a way.

"We've had some real adversity this week, a bit of illness in the camp, a fair few injuries, a bit of rotation and there was a bit of a hangover going on as the guys have had a fair bit of celebration over the last four or five days.

"But I'm immensely proud of the way the squad came together and found a way to win that game."