PIRATES HEAD BACK TO SCOTLAND FOR MORE FIRST LEG ACTION

Poole will put to the back of their minds the five point advantage they gained in the 1st leg of the knockout cup final on Saturday when they beat Edinburgh 47-42,  as they return to Scotland for the first leg of the grand final play off on Tuesday.

It will be a different stage,  with a different cast but the same plot line and hopefully a similar Pirates' performance to that of the weekend, as they head to Glasgow for the important clash featuring the two sides that finished top of the regular league table.

Poole promoter Dan Ford said, "this is the beginning of a vital four days for us, with three very big meetings. I  don't think there could be a tougher one at this stage of the season than to visit Ashfield as they (Glasgow) have been very strong at home all year.  I sense that they will be really fired up for this one, especially as they missed out on the title the last time it was staged,  back in 2019. For us it is about achieving the objective that we had at the start of the season,  the reason why we brought together this bunch of lads who have developed into a very good team indeed. We will approach it as we have any other meeting with the priority to win it,but also knowing that nothing will be decided until Friday.  So long as we keep things close then it should set up a dramatic night back at Wimborne Road."

Poole will have Jack Thomas as a guest for injured Stefan Nielsen but other than that will be unchanged from that which gave them the advantage for Wednesday night's cup final against Edinburgh.

Teams:
Glasgow 1 Craig Cook 2 Broc Nicol 3 Sam Jensen 4 Tom Brennan 5 Ricky Wells 6 Marcin Nowak 7 Connor Bailey TM Cami Brown

Poole 1 Steve Worrall 2 Danyon Hume 3 Rory Schlein 4 Ben Cook 5 Danny King 6 Jack Thomas (Guest) 7 Ben Basso TM Gary Havelock