Wasps sign second Cornish Pirates player on a short-term deal inside a week

Wasps have signed their second Cornish Pirates player on a short-term deal within a week, scrum-half Alex Schwarz joining the Gallagher Premiership club just six days after they brought in loosehead prop Marlen Walker last week as cover.

The 27-year-old joined Pirates in 2018 from RGC (Rygbi Gogledd Cymru) who compete in Wales Principality Premiership. With a couple of scrum-halves away on international duty and ruled out with injury, the ex-Wales U18 representative Schwarz will now provide much-needed cover at Wasps.

Schwarz has also played for Italian Top 12 side Rugby Colorno and represented Scarlets Premiership Select in the British and Irish Cup.

Wasps boss Lee Blackett, who has seen his team beaten in their last two Premiership outings, said: “With Dan Robson and Will Porter unavailable to us, we needed to bring in some more cover at scrum-half. Alex is an experienced player who will add a lot to our young scrum-half group for the next month or so. We look forward to welcoming him to the club.

“We would like to say a big thank you to Alan Paver, Gavin Cattle and everyone at Cornish Pirates for them allowing us to take a number of their players on loan over the past few weeks. It's obvious from how easily their loan players have adapted to our set-up that they are a very well-coached club.”

It was last Thursday when Wasps brought in Walker, another Pirates player, on loan for similar reasons, players being away on Test duty or else injured. A former New Zealand secondary schools representative prop, the 32-year-old Walker joined Pirates in 2015 and has made over 120 appearances.

Born in Auckland, he was previously a member of the Auckland Blues and Western Force academies. Blackett added: “Marlen has been an impressive operator in the Championship for a number of seasons now.”