Pirates v London Welsh: Teams

The Cornish Pirates will look to prove a point when they take on London Welsh in the first leg of the RFU Championship play-off, live on Sky Sports 2 HD.

The Pirates were beaten finalists 12 months ago when they went down to Worcester - and they are determined to go one better against the Exiles.

The club are also looking to increase the pressure on Cornwall Council, whose decision to vote against assisting with the funding of a new stadium means that the Pirates will be unable to win promotion to the Aviva Premiership for the foreseeable future.

The Pirates have already caused an upset by beating the highly-fancied Bristol in the semi-final - coming out 63-53 winners on aggregate.

Criteria

Coach Ian Davies has made just the one change to his line-up, with Dave Ewers coming into the back row after Chris Morgan suffered a broken arm against Bristol.

London Welsh will make the trip to Penzance determined to break into the top-flight.

The Exiles insist they will meet the criteria set out for promotion - including playing games at the Kassam Stadium in Oxford - however first they will have end their losing run at the Mennaye.

Welsh have lost on their last three visits to the ground - including 18-10 in last season's play-off semi-final.

However former Scotland international Gordon Ross returns to the line-up following the narrow semi-final success over Bedford Blues.

Ross replaces the benched Seb Jewell in the No.10 jersey, with Simon Whatling dropping out of the squad.

Cornish Pirates: 15 R Cook, 14 G Pointer, 13 S Hill, 12 A Suniula, 11 D Doherty, 10 C Thomas, G 9 Cattle (capt), 8 K Marriott, 7 P Burgess, 6 D Ewers, 5 I Nimmo, 4 L McGlone, 3 A Paver, 2 D Ward, 1C Rimmer.
Replacements: 16 R Storer, 17 R Elloway, 18 R Brits, 19 M Smith, 20 B Maidment, 21 T Kessell, 22 M Evans.

London Welsh: 15 Alex Davies, 14 Nick Scott, 13 James Lewis, 12 Hudson Tonga'uiha*, 11 Joe Ajuwa, 10 Gordon Ross, 9 Jack Moates, 1 Billy Moss, 2 Dan George, 3 James Tideswell, 4 Adam Brown, 5 Matt Corker, 6 Jon Mills (capt), 7 Mike Denbee, 8 Ed Jackson.
Replacements: 16 Vili Ma'asi, 17 Shawn Pittman, 18 Greg Bateman, 19 Gary Johnson, 20 Lee Beach, 21 Rob Lewis, 22 Seb Jewell.