Cornwall RLFC: Rugby League newcomers prepare for first season

Rugby has long been a passion for the people of Cornwall.

The county side has a proud history and clubs like Cornish Pirates, Redruth and Launceston have all produced players that have gone on to bigger and better things.

But that has all been in rugby union. On Saturday the first-ever professional rugby league side from the county will be making their debut in League One - the third tier of the English game.

"I went to university and was first introduced to the sport there," says Cornwall hooker Sam Gilder, who had played union in his native St Austell until he moved away.

"I fell in love with it from the first session. It was after the first year's welcome fair and they went 'we've got a game on Wednesday if you fancy it', I went 'go on then, I'll have a crack at a bit of rugby league'.

"So when the opportunity came along and I got the phone call to say 'we've got a team in Cornwall, we want you to sign' I went 'where do I sign?' I was speechless.

"I thought I'd have to move away to play the sport I love, and being able to do it in an environment that I know and love is an honour and a privilege."

So how did this rugby union mad county end up having a professional rugby league side?

Cornwall have taken the place of Ottawa Aces - a planned rugby league side in the same mould as the Toronto Wolfpack side that made it all the way to the Super League before the Covid-19 pandemic ended their dreams.

They are backed by Eric Perez - one of the founders of the Toronto club - with the aim of building on the rugby community already in Cornwall.

"In many respects it's just starting with a blank sheet," Cornwall head coach Neil Kelly told BBC Sport.

"Toronto recruited from rugby league areas all over the world, we're just recruiting basically from Cornwall and from the heartlands of rugby league.

"I think this is true development," added the former Widnes, Leigh and Dewsbury boss when asked to compare Cornwall's model to that of Toronto.

The Wolfpack brought in high-strength squads with players such as Sonny Bill Williams, Fuifui Moimoi and Jon Wilkin as they went from League One to the Super League in three seasons.

"How much are you really developing a club if you're fetching players from all over the world just to represent you?" Kelly said.

"When the money's gone or you have a bit of hard times they all go back home again, whereas we're wanting to develop a rugby league base in Cornwall."

Only one 'star' name - former Toronto, Leeds and Ireland prop Anthony Mullally - has signed for the club so far, the rest are mainly local players or those willing to relocate and prepare for the long trips ahead.

And they will be long - Cornwall will do just short of 6,500 miles on the road this year going to places such as Hunslet, Swinton and Doncaster.

Their longest trip will to Keighley is 388 miles each way, and even their shortest journey - a 251-mile one-way trip to Midlands Hurricanes - is still the best part of six hours on a bus from their home ground in Penryn.

Cornwall's first taste of such travels will come on their 384 mile each way journey to North Wales Crusaders' Eirias Stadium home in Colwyn Bay for their 17:30 BST kick off on Saturday, 2 April.

"It's part of my spiel. Don't be wanting to come down expecting it to be like if you're in the north," Kelly said.

"We've got to get over this seven or eight hours on a bus to an away game and seven or eight hours back. Don't be coming down and and thinking 'I didn't realise what it was', it's there, we've got to overcome it.

"Most of my players are quite prepared to undertake that journey. Obviously it's going to involve overnight stays because it's not safe to undertake that journey and then play a game of rugby, but there's still a large unknown about it."

And Kelly accepts that a long journey down to Cornwall - especially in peak summer tourist season - might not make his club all that popular with their rivals.

"It puts a lot of pressure on already tight resources at those clubs, and when we go away to play them at their grounds we're not going to boost their attendances by a significant number," he added.

"There has been a bit of scepticism, a little bit of 'do we really need this?'.

"But rugby league's a game that's thrived on development throughout all its years. Some clubs have survived, some clubs have fallen by the wayside, we're starting to develop and introduce Cornwall into the professional leagues and our intention is in 10 or 20 years time we're still here."

So what of Kelly's rookie squad and their chances for the season ahead as they try and persuade the people of Cornwall to swap winter line-outs for summer sets of six?

"It'd be unrealistic of us to think that we could achieve brilliant things in the outset, which is what Toronto did with players from all over the world," he said.

"We've set goals in our squad and we're more focusing on the performances at the outset, and if we get the performances right in every aspect then we'll come together and we'll start to win games.

"If at the end of this season we're in a stronger position than when we started then I think that's progress.

"I myself have got a private target of making the play-offs. If we do that, that'll be beyond our wildest dreams for our first year."