EDINBURGH need to break a 72-YEAR losing streak if they are to extend Poole’s 2023 Knockout Cup misery.
The pair’s quarter-final first leg at Wimborne Road on Wednesday is a repeat of the 2021 final.
The Pirates won both legs that season and in the 72 years since the Monarchs first visited the south coast only once – 46-32 in a 1963 KO Cup tie – have they won.
Poole boss Dan Ford is hoping for a repeat of the 104-75 aggregate triumph in 2021, the Pirates successfully defending the trophy the following year before their bid to make it three in a row ended at the hands of Scunthorpe last year.
Ford said: “We want to be in the final again and go one better this season. To do that we have to get past Edinburgh. It is important not only to win the meeting, but to put a big score on the card so we go to Scotland next month with something to defend.
“With the interruptions to our schedule so far it feels like we will be kick-starting our season again on Wednesday.”
Poole’s only outing so far was the 61-29 trouncing of Oxford on Good Friday.
Leading the Monarchs will be Wimborne Road big-hitter Josh Pickering who produced a stunning 16-point performance which almost saw his side to victory at Berwick in their only completed match this season.
Paco Castagna, Kye Thomson and Lasse Fredriksen also return from last year’s Edinburgh side while Justin Sedgmen is back at the club where he won a league and KO Cup double in 2014 and their league, league cup and Fours winning side the following year.
Connor Coles is another returning to the club during the winter while teenager Max James will be making his Wimborne Road debut.
The second leg of this tie is scheduled for Friday 3 May at Armadale.
Poole: Richard Lawson, Tobias Thomsen, Tom Brennan, Zach Cook, Ben Cook, Sam Hagon, Max Perry.
Edinburgh: Josh Pickering, Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Justin Sedgmen, Max James, Connor Coles.
Words by George Dodds.
Images by Taylor Lanning.