It was dejavu to the major semi-final for the Blue Boars as Pirates outplayed them to end their two-year reign 66-19.

“I think they are just a great side,” Blue Boars coach Nick Lennon.

“They've been the dominant team since the competition split.”

There wasn't much else he could say other than they were “just too good”.

Chasing a third straight premiership, the Blue Boars were under no illusions going in, and with Pirates size advantage knew they were going to struggle in the scrums and forwards. They thought they had a plan to counter that and couldn't have got off to a better start with skipper Matt Schwager ducking over after some good forward drives. But any momentum was quickly evaporated with Pirates piling on four tries in 12 minutes to jump out to a 26-5 lead.

“Once they started to get a few scrums, they were so dominant and the game changed,” Lennon said.

The game was seemingly gone at 40-12 down at half-time but the Blue Boars never gave up and scored a nice try early in the second half with five-eighth Jake Packer dissecting the Pirates midfield with a cut out ball to outside centre Henri Knight. 

But like in the first half Pirates were quick to respond and the Blue Boars were on the backfoot again.

Despite the heavy defeat Lennon was still immensely proud of his sides efforts.

“They were outplayed but it wasn't through lack of effort,” he said.