The Cornish Pirates will welcome Doncaster Knights to the Mennaye Field on Sunday for their final home match of 2022.

With Doncaster sitting in fifth and the Pirates eight, a hard-fought and entertaining encounter is expected in front of a big festive crowd.

The Pirates welcome back to Tommy Wyatt, who is selected on the wing.

The one other change in the XV from the one that ran out at Caldy sees last Saturday’s outside centre replacement, Rory Parata, given a starting role.

On the bench is Garyn Smith who after a luckless spell with injury this season is fit again.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s fixture, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle said: “People will understand that we are in a frustrating spot at present, as in our last two games we have been in control at half-time but have then faltered.

“This has, in part, been because a myriad of things – partly through skill execution, bad luck, certain decisions not going our way – all of which has led to the energy and the flow of the games just spiralling away from us.

"Obviously, this is something we have looked at, to consider what we need to change, to just push through this.

“Doncaster are closely similar to us in terms of wins and losses, so on Sunday it is going to be two teams who have been in this competition for a long time, and who know each other well, with a bit of an arm wrestle expected.

“Winning is important, but we are looking at our performance, with an aim to stay in the challenge and fight and maintain ascendancy beyond just 40 minutes. There should be no drop off, right to the end of games.”

Cornish Pirates: 15 Carwyn Penny 14 Tommy Wyatt 13 Rory Parata 12 Joe Elderkin 11 AJ Cant 10 Arwel Robson 1 Ruaridh Dawson; 1 Olly Adkins 2 Will Crane 3 Matt Johnson 4 Cory Teague 5 Will Britton 6 Alex Everett 7 John Stevens (captain) 8 Rusiate Tuima.

Replacements: 16 Max Norey 17 Marlen Walker 18 Harvey Beaton 19 Josh Williams 20 Seb Nagle-Taylor 21 Tom Kessell 22 Harry Bazalgette 23 Garyn Smith.