Three of the four home nations are represented in this year’s semi-final line-up, with an all Irish tie set to take place when Leinster A host Munster A.

Munster will be hoping to push through to their second British & Irish Cup final, having lost to inaugural winners Cornish Pirates in May 2010.

Standing in their way are close rivals Leinster A, who topped Pool 3 with three wins and a draw against London Welsh. A comprehensive 32-0 home win against Pontypridd confirmed the Irish club’s entry to the semi-finals.

In the second semi-final, newcomers Cross Keys have made their first year in the competition known, finishing top of Pool 2 just one point ahead of Munster A.

The Principality Premiership side will welcome Cornish Pirates to Pandy Park, following a dominant win over Llanelli in the quarter-finals.

The Pirates are the only team in the line-up to have won all four of their pool matches, securing their path to the semi-finals with a win over fellow RFU Championship contenders Nottingham Rugby.

British & Irish Cup semi-finals, April 6-8

• Semi-final 1: Leinster A V Munster A
• Semi-final 2: Cross Keys V Cornish Pirates

Former England Under-20 international Short, who featured in the 55-10 win over Banca Monte Crociati on Saturday, is expected to travel down to Pirates this week to start training with the club.

Short, who will be dual registered and so able to be called back for league action if required, has made a total of 18 appearances in his career for Warriors and scored two tries.

A product of the Warriors Academy and AASE scheme, Short has played eight games this season and featured twice in the Aviva Premiership.

The Worcester-born back joins team-mates George Porter and Sione Tu’ipulotu on going out on loan after the club confirmed they would move to Plymouth Albion for game time last week.

Head Coach Richard Hill said: “It’s important that Andy gets games and we believe a spell at Cornish Pirates will be of great benefit to him.

“He remains a key member of the Worcester squad and we are excited about his future at Sixways. But we feel regular rugby, at a strong club like the Pirates who we have a strong relationship with, is crucial for him and his development.”

The team has lost on its last two visits to the famous ‘Exiles’ club, so Chris Stirling’s side will be keen to record a ‘W’ there on Saturday. Also, if a quick check of the records proves correct, then it would put the Pirates one win up on the win-loss account with reference to games played at Old Deer Park between the two teams since their first meeting at National One/Championship level stretching back to March, 2004. To date they have met eight times at ‘ODP’, each winning four and losing four, but with a points ratio of 182-151 in favour of ‘The Dragons’.

For this encounter in west London the Cornish Pirates welcome back Jonny Bentley from injury, who will be making his second Championship appearance of the season, whilst the USA’s international centre Andrew Suniula also gets a starting role after making his debut off the bench last week against Esher.

Skipper scrum-half Gavin Cattle returns to the side, as to the starting line-up do loose-head prop Carl Rimmer and back-rower Blair Cowan, who is named at blind-side flanker.

Saturday’s will inevitably be another highly charged game, with it expected that the home team will be especially keen to gain revenge for having lost last season’s RFU Championship semi-final 18-10 back at the Mennaye Field.

The ingredients are certainly there for a thriller – we shall soon see………

The Cornish Pirates side named for Saturday’s encounter is as follows:-

Cornish Pirates: R. Cook, G. Pointer, D. Locke, A. Suniula, D. Doherty, J. Bentley, G. Cattle (capt), B. Maidment, P. Burgess, B. Cowan, I. Nimmo, M. Myerscough, R. Brits, R. Elloway, C. Rimmer.

Replacements: R. Storer, D. Ward, L. McGlone, C. Morgan, T. Kessell, C. Thomas, S. Hill.

Canadian international full-back Matt Evans, aged 23, who has been a star performer for the ‘Canucks’ since making his debut in 2008 and has just competed in the Rugby World Cup, will join the Cornish Pirates early in November following next weekend’s Pan American Games rugby 7s competition being held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

A former Hartpury College and Newport Gwent Dragons player, who was actually born in Salisbury, England, Matt’s best considered positions are full-back and wing, but he also has the skill set to play anywhere in the backline, except scrum-half.

Cornish Pirates supporters will be looking forward to welcoming the latest new signing, but will also be sad to hear the news regarding Wes Davies who has played superbly this past couple of years during what has been his second spell with the club.

With reference to the singing of Matt Evans, Cornish Pirates CEO Rod Coward commented:

"In announcing that we have signed Matt Evans as cover for an unfortunate Wes, I can confirm that he comes highly recommended and we have been watching his progress for some time. Supporters will remember him for his performances against the Pirates for Gwent Dragons and Newport.

"Matt has played 16 times for Canada, most recently at the World Cup, and has scored eight tries. He also represents Canada at 7s and will be joining us on the 2nd of November."

Bristol begin the defence of the trophy they lifted at the end of the last season, while Cornish Pirates won the competition in 2009/10.

A host of players, including Ollie Woodburn and Tom Channon, will make their competitive debuts for the Club. Dan Montagu returns to full fitness to start in the second row.

The line-up includes a combination of EPDG, Academy and dual-registration players – some of whom played for Bristol United in the pre-season defeat at the Recreation Ground. Four players who featured in the defeat against Leeds – Darren Barry, Marco Mama, Rhys Lawrence and Jon Goodridge – are named in the B&I Cup 22 man-squad.

Bristol Rugby team to face Cornish Pirates at Mennaye Field on Wednesday 21 September (5pm KO):

James Letherby; Ollie Woodburn, Ben Mercer, Ben Mosses, Ryan Edwards; Mark Cook, Matt Keyte; Will Davis, Tom Channon, Jake Caulfield, Dan Montagu, Darren Barry, Mitch Eadie, Marco Mama (c), Charlie Danielli.

Replacements: Rhys Lawrence, Ricky Cano, Harry Hone, Steve Uren, Callum Braley, Will Thomas, Jon Goodridge.

It is a clash, of course, of previous winners. The Pirates were proudly the inaugural winners of the trophy when beating Munster 23-14 in the first ever final which was played at Camborne in May, 2010, whilst Bristol are the present holders following their 17-14 points victory at the Memorial Stadium against Bedford Blues at the end of last season.

In the Championship this season Bristol have recorded a 38-12 points victory away to Doncaster Knights, a 32-13 win at home to London Scottish, and a narrow 12-11 loss away to Leeds Carnegie, so they will enter Cornwall on Wednesday in pretty fine fettle under the guidance of new head coach Liam Middleton, and obviously looking for a good start in defence of their title as the cup holders.

The British & Irish Cup trophy now has a change in format with a cross-pool fixture list which guarantees two home fixtures for each side. The Pirates are in Pool 1, along with Ayr, Moseley and Neath, but their other games in the competition, besides Wednesday’ against Bristol, will be played against Plymouth Albion away on Wednesday 12th October (ko 7.45pm), Munster away on Friday 11th November (ko 7 or 7.30pm) and Cross Keys at home on Sunday 18th December (ko 2pm). All of these teams are in Pool B.

Following the pool stages, six pool winners plus two best runners up progress to the quarter finals to be played on the weekend of Saturday 21st. January. The teams are seeded based on pool performance with the top four having home advantage. The semi-finals are pencilled in for the weekend of Saturday 7th April and the final for the weekend of Saturday 28th April.

For Wednesday’s opener the Pirates have also selected Kieron Lewitt at full-back, who plays for the Cornish All Blacks. Championship clubs are able to play up to 10 players in this season’s British & Irish Cup who are registered for league rugby with clubs at Level 3 or below. Kieron, who attended Colston’s Collegiate School in Bristol, has represented England at a number of age groups, and has also in the past played for Bath and for Canterbury.
Cornish Pirates: K. Lewitt, R. McAtee, R. Westren, S. Hill, W. Davies, R. Cook, T. Kessell, K. Marriott (capt), C. Walker-Blair, D. Ewers, M. Myerscough, M. Smith, L. Fairbrother, T. Cowan-Dickie, R. Storer.
Replacements: C. Rimmer, D. Ward, P. Andrew, L. McGlone, B. Maidment, G. Cattle, T. Cooper.
Referee: Luke Pearce Assistants: Shane Lewis & Andy Bickle
Match Day Sponsor: The Leadbitter Group

A back-rower who is 6′ 4″ tall and weighs in at nearly 15 and a half stones, Charlie has also played on the wing and has previously made appearances for Taunton, Minehead, and Carterton in New Zealand. His honours include playing for Somerset and for Wairapa Bush.

Charlie is the fifth player from Exeter to be dual registered with the Cornish Pirates, joining colleagues Tom Cowan-Dickie, Dave Ewers, Lloyd Fairbrother and Sam Hill.

Commenting with reference to Charlie’s dual registration, Cornish Pirates high performance manager Chris Stirling said:

“When recently discussing dual registered players with Rob Baxter, Charlie’s name was mentioned and he was strongly recommended as someone who is rated very highly.”

Worcester take a nine-point lead into the sell-out televised encounter at Sixways tomorrow (Wednesday) after claiming a hard-fought 21-12 win in Penzance last week.

Hill is aware that fired-up Cornish Pirates will arrive keen to wipe out that advantage as soon as possible.

However, he has called on his Warriors to rise to the challenge, to repeat the impressive start they produced at the Mennaye Field, and put any thoughts of promotion to the back of their mind.

“There is no talk of the lead,” he said. “We are not talking about promotion or the nine points. This about one game and that is the beauty of winning the first tie.

“We haven’t got to fuss about anything else. The task is now clear and we have got to win the game.

“It was critical to get the win in the first leg. If you are coming back and you have lost by a point or two points then a lot of tactics start going through your head about kicking goals, kicking for corners or drop goals, you panic about conceding early points.

“The massive task was to go to Cornwall and win because that means here is just a normal game and we have to win.

Hill also insists the mood inside the camp is good and the squad are not feeling the pressure ahead of the big kick-off.

“There is no pressure on us,” he said. “We are very cool and very calm about it. I expect us to be ruthless and we want to win and put a performance in.

“We didn’t play anything like how we can play as a team last Wednesday. It was an ugly win and we did what we needed to do to win 21-12. We have got a huge amount to come if we really click.”

The Pirates will travel to Worcester aware that the Warriors have a trio of reasons to feel confident – they have an experienced squad of players, they hold a ‘half-time’ lead in the final, and they are at home – but there is still a feeling that the Cornish side can cut the deficit should they eradicate errors and manage to split what proved to be a committed Worcester defence at the Mennaye Field.

Speaking ahead of the game, Cornish Pirates high performance manager Chris Stirling said:

"This game will inevitably be as intense as it gets but we have beaten the Warriors at ‘Sixways’ this season and we’d love to do it again.

"We will need to start better than we did at home and not make unfortunate mistakes, and if we can play with a bit of tempo and create chances then who knows what might happen.

"Worcester are well organised outfit, as you’d expect, but I am proud of what the boys have achieved and we’ll be looking to end the season on a high."

The match at Worcester’s ‘Sixways’ Stadium on Wednesday evening kicks off at 7.45pm.

Andy Goode bagged 16 points to put Worcester Warriors in pole position for a return to the Aviva Premiership.

The former England fly-half grabbed a first-half try and kicked three penalties and a conversion as Warriors left the Mennaye Field with a nine-point lead going into next Wednesday’s RFU Championship final second leg at Sixways.

“We’ll take nine points back home with us but it could have been more,” said Goode. “In first half we were in complete control but in the second they threw everything at us and chucked the ball around with nothing to lose. We gave too many penalties away, which only gave us a nine-point cushion when it could have been 12 or 15.”

For Pirates wing Rhodri McAtee it was a frustrating night but he added: “We can still do it. Nine points is not a big deficit at all. We are disappointed not to have scored any tries but they defended well.”

The Warriors got on the score-sheet in the sixth minute after being camped in the Pirates ‘22. They beat a forwards’ march to the line before bringing centre Dale Rasmussen into play and wing Miles Benjamin proved why he is Warriors’ top try scorer by stepping out of McAtee’s tackle and over the line.

The livewire wing put the disappointment behind him to lead the Pirates fightback with a chip and gather but it came to nothing.

Goode put Worcester 8-0 up before Rob Cook pulled back three points but it was small respite.  

The Warriors’ forwards had the upper hand in a series of reset scrums on the Pirates’ line and with such a dominant platform, scrum-half Jonny Arr fed Goode, who skipped out of Gavin Cattle’s reach for the try which he converted.

Cook landed his second penalty but then Pirates infringed straight away and Goode slotted another kick for an 18-6 halftime lead.

He missed a chance to put the Warriors safe but hooked it wide and Cook did no better with a chance of his own.

Goode rediscovered his radar to extend the lead before Cook pulled back two more penalties, one when Neil Best was sinbinned.

Cornish Pirates: R Cook; R McAtee, M Hopper, T Luke (D Locke 54), W Davies (R Elloway 63); J Bentley, G Cattle (capt); P Andrew (R Storer 63). D Ward (T Holmes 75), A Paver (C Rimmer 69), I Nimmo, M Myerscough, C Morgan, P Burgess, L McGlone (K Marriott 69). Rep not used:J Doherty.

Scorers: Pens– Cook (4).

Worcester Warriors:C  Pennell (capt); M Garvey, A Crockett (A Grove 57), D Rasmussen, M Benjamin; A Goode (J Carlisle 75), J Arr; A Black, C Fortey (A Lutui 54), T Taumoepeau (B Douglas 61), G Rawlinson (G Kitchener 61), C Gillies, N Best (A Balding 69), J Abbott, K Horstmann. Rep not used: O Frost.

Yellow card: Best 58-68
Scorers: Tries – Benjamin, Goode; Pens – Goode (3); Con –  Goode

Referee:  Martin Fox (RFU)

Att: 3,500