Rob Cook is confident of helping Cornish Pirates to victory in the Championship play-off final against Worcester.
Pirates ace quietly confident of play-off shock
Cornish Pirates full-back Rob Cook is quietly confident of preserving Leeds Carnegie's Aviva Premiership status by helping his side to victory in the Championship play-off final against Worcester.
The Pirates host the Warriors live on
Sky Sports HD3/3 on Wednesday night in the first-leg of the second-tier play-off final.
Worcester, who finished the regular Championship season at the top of the table with 21 wins from 22 matches, are two games away from an instant return to the top-flight, however they face a tough examination from the Penzance-based Pirates.
The Pirates are the only side to have defeated the Warriors in the league this term and Cook, the leading points-scorer in the Championship, believes he and his team-mates can draw strength from that when the final begins.
Massive
Speaking exclusively to
skysports.com, the 26-year-old said: "It's been a long season and getting to the final is what we aimed to do at the start of the season. We are looking forward to it, we're a bit nervous at the moment but we can't wait for the game to start.
"At our place we are very confident. The only team to beat us at home this season are Worcester and they only did that by a couple of points. We've got nothing to lose so we're just going to go out and play some decent rugby.
"Home advantage is massive, especially for us. A lot of sides don't like coming down to our place, it's a big game, we've done our analysis on them and we know what we've got to do."
Cook, who joined the Pirates from Nuneaton in the summer of 2009, has added to his burgeoning reputation this season with 334 points.
His reliability in both defence and attack helped propel the Pirates to a third-placed finish, and they went on to seal their place in the final with an 18-10 win over London Welsh.
Asked whether the upcoming clash with Worcester is the biggest game of his career to-date, he replied: "It's definitely up there. Certainly for the club it's massive and the supporters as well.
"I'm sure when it gets to quarter to eight on Wednesday there will be a lot of nerves flying about but it will be a good atmosphere and I can't wait.
"We've beaten before, we know how we're going to attack them and what they're going to try and do. We've had a couple of close games with them and I think this season on aggregate it's 54-53 to them."
Even if the Pirates do defy the odds and prevail over two legs, Cook and his team-mates will be denied a place in the Premiership as their Mennaye Field home does not meet the entry criteria.
Annoying
But, as Cook points out, this setback is nothing new to the players, who are hopeful that a change of home will pave the way for a future promotion push.
"We knew that we couldn't go up at the start of the year. It is a bit annoying but hopefully next year we will have the opportunity to get to the Premiership so it's all good practice for that next year," he added.
"We've been told that there is a massive push for a stadium in Cornwall so fingers crossed we can go up next year."
Speaking on the threat posed by Worcester, Cook pinpointed former England fly-half Andy Goode and pacy wingers Miles Benjamin and Marcel Garvey as the men to watch.
He added: "Obviously Goode is their one to watch. He controls their game and everything goes through him. He's been sin-binned twice against us in three games though, so we'll see what happens there.
"The two wingers Garvey and Benjamin are pretty dangerous players too, but we know what we're going to do to try and stop them."
