If the Cornish Pirates are to extend their winning run to five matches tomorrow at Rotherham Titans, they will need to conquer the imposing physical threat of the South Yorkshire outfit.

Andre Bester's side have lost only once at Clifton Lane in the Championship all season, when they went down by a single point to London Welsh earlier this month.

Last weekend the South African head coach made 11 changes to his starting line-up as he rested key players for the Pirates clash, and after watching his team go down 37-3 at Bristol he remained upbeat.

"By and large I am happy with the performance," he said. "When we are at full strength and if we play Bristol in the promotion play-offs, I am sure they are beatable."

In contrast, the Pirates maintained their recent winning run which has seen them climb to second in the table by putting in a strong display in foul conditions to beat London Welsh 27-6 at Penzance's Mennaye Field.

Backs coach Harvey Biljon explained that, despite the forecast of bad weather in the north of the country this weekend and the possibility of the game having to be postponed, the squad have prepared well for the long trip north. He said: "We have prepared as best as we could this week knowing the weather forecast wasn't good with frost and snow forecast, but things like this are out of your control. We want to play if we can."

The Pirates are due to leave Penzance at 8am today. They had hoped to know the state of play in Rotherham before their departure time, but the Titans are planning a further pitch inspection at 2pm today after the ground was deemed fit at 4pm yesterday.

Biljon insisted they are well prepared for all eventualities. "If the game is called off, it will be moved to the following Saturday, which is a reserve weekend," he said. "We had wanted to give the boys a few days off, but that may have to go because we can't take our foot off the gas."

Rotherham have not fielded their first-choice starting line-up since beating Moseley three weeks ago, but Biljon preferred to concentrate on the Pirates' own need to be clinical and effective on the narrow Clifton Lane pitch.

"Rotherham could be really fresh or they could need the game-time, but I'm sure that Bester will have prepared them well," he said.

"Like their forwards, their backs are also big and abrasive, and they will always run over you before they run around you. That said, they do have some decent players like Gary Law, so we will have to front up defensively.

"We have to make sure we are accurate in the things we do and use it to our advantage. We have to be accurate and build pressure and not let the size of the pitch affect us."

With the rolling squad rotation policy within the Pirates' camp nearing an end ahead of the play-offs, a few sore bodies and niggles after last Sunday's huge forwards battle against the Welsh will delay selection until the last minute.

Biljon said: "There are a few bumps and bruises in the squad following the London Welsh game which will affect selection this weekend.

"Ideally, we would have liked a week off to prepare for the physical tests against Bristol and Moseley after a physical battle at Rotherham, but we have plans in place to cope with everything.

"We are waiting for scan results on Andrew Suniula [who is ruled out with knee ligament damage] and an update from the medical team on Darren Daniel. But the good news is that Wes [Davies] will be stepping up his training in the next week and Jonny Bentley is progressing well, although not training yet."

Cornish Pirates (from): Cattle, Cook, J Doherty, Thomas, D Doherty, Kessell, Pointer, Evans, Andrew, Brits, Burgess, Maidment, Marriott, Myerscough, Nimmo, Rimmer, Smith, Storer, Ward, McGlone, Cowan-Dickie, Paver, McAtee, Cooper, Short, Penberthy, Morgan.