The Jack Hore trophy has been housed inside the Southern clubrooms since 2003.
Pirates won only four games last winter and finished bottom of the championship. It is unbeaten and sits at the top this year, alongside University A and Southern, on the maximum 10 points after two rounds.
''I'm pleased with the wins,'' Pirates coach Paul Miller said.
''The luck was on our side.''
Miller is not taking a win for granted tomorrow.
''It will be a test for us. Southern will be a bit more clinical in the way they execute their moves.''
Miller admires the rugby nous of Southern coach Barry Stevens and knows Pirates will be put under pressure.
Pirates has beaten Green Island 53-26 and Zingari-Richmond 28-23 this season.
''Southern will be another step up,'' Miller said.
''Both games have been tight and last year we would have bowed out. Winning is a lot more pleasing.''
A newcomer in the Pirates premier team this year is fullback Tim Cossens (18), a son of John Cossens, who played premier rugby as a loose forward for Pirates in the 1980s.
Last year, Tim Cossens played first five-eighth for St Bedes in the Crusaders First XV competition. He has kicked 26 points in club rugby this year.
''Tim has shown a lot of maturity,'' Miller said.
''What we lacked last year was a reliable goal-kicker.''
Southern has beaten Kaikorai 37-24 and Green Island 38-31 in its first two games this year, and will start as the favourite at Bathgate Park.
Jack Hore was the hard and uncompromising Southern prop-hooker who played 45 games, including 10 tests, for the All Blacks from 1928 to 1936.
He was a great in his day and epitomised everything that was good about the Southern club and its tradition of hard forward play.
Hore played 113 first-class games, including 51 for Otago. He died in 1979 at the age of 71, and the Jack Hore Memorial Trophy match is played annually between Southern and Pirates.
