And, the First XV came out of the sheds firing to record a 57-17 victory.

Initially, both sides spread the ball left and right and the referee was even leading the cheer squad until the Pirates delivered the first blow with a try and a conversion by Jordan Macey.

With a spreading and threatening backline working the eastern side of the ground, the locals quickly swapped sides with confidence and scored twice again, together with the later being converted by the Pirates’ captain-coach.

The Port Macquarie outfit then utilised a penalty to add to their early points, opening up a 22-0 margin after only 20 minutes.

A few moments of quick play by the visitors caused the Pirates to take some hesitating breaths as Kempsey crossed the line twice in a short period of retaliation.

The Pirates were puzzled as the score closed to 22-12.

Some frustrating moments followed as penalties became the order of the day before a combination of Matt Mane and Tom Vallentine opened up Kempsey’s backline.

Even though the visitors continued to keep the Pirates in their own half, the side’s backline found open space again, only to fall short of the line.

This was only a minor pause as Scott Munro crashed over, leaving the half-time score at 29-12.

After some powerful scrum work early in the second period, the ball was passed out yet again, which led to Macey finding the zone and converting his own try.

Moments later, the Pirates swapped sides again and spread it to Scott Pagan who touched down, pushing the Pirates further ahead 43-12.

Some cheeky responsive play by the Cannonballs threw caution in the Pirates’ sails, but the home team held their ground and kept the visitors at bay.

A try came shortly after for the Pirates with Darryl Thompson adding to the points tally.

A gutsy attempt by the Cannonballs’ backline was put down by an even better response by the best and fairest player, Nick Dobson, as he managed to get the ball back into play after it was kicked deep in the corner of the scoring zone.

Some fresh legs off the bench saw Mark Harris and Justin Lowe defending their side well, but Kempsey persisted and broke through to reduce the margin to 50-17.

A late five-pointer sealed the 57-17 win.

The Pirates’ Second XV held their ground well despite a gutsy effort by the visitors, leaving the full-time score at 5-all.

This side, led by the hat-trick scoring Robert Duffy, has been flushed with the return of some local greats and a number of fast backs like Danny Peisley.

The under 19s were troubled with their loss to the Cannonballs, albeit Zac Shore and newcomer Christo Wicken played strongly.

The final score for the youngsters was 26-15 in favour of the visitors.