Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle says he will take positives from his side’s heartbreaking 27-26 loss to Bedford in the Champ.
Will Maisey’s penalty with three minutes to go secured victory for the Blues at the Mennaye as Pirates lost for a second successive week.
The home side did, though, earn two bonus points from the loss and move up a spot to fourth in the table, but the gap to third-placed Bedford is now eight points.
“I thought it was a hell of a game, I think both teams had their opportunities as the scoreline would suggest,” Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.
“There’s some positives to take from it – I thought we were under pressure a lot in the first half in defence, we were spaced quite widely and they were picking us off, but we physically were there, I felt.
“Our set piece in patches showed some extreme power, so that’s sort of turning the corner, but we’re not converting our pressure at the minute and I suppose Bedford could argue they had a good spell for about 10 minutes in our 22 where they’d want to come away with more points.
“But it was a tightly-fought game, great effort from both sides but we’ll be looking at some key moments that we just didn’t manage that eventually gave them that extra point to win.”
George Worth’s try gave Blues a 5-0 lead after 10 minutes before Morgan Nelson crossed 11 minutes later to put the hosts 7-5 up.
Rory Ward’s touchdown made it 10-7 after 26 minutes, but Pirates hit back again to lead 14-10 at the break thanks to a try from Arthur Relton.
Dean Adamson crossed to put Bedford 17-14 up soon after the restart, but Charlie Rice restored Pirates’ advantage with an unconverted try 10 minutes into the second half.
Adamson was on hand again to make it 24-21 with 22 minutes left before Pirates winger Harry Yates scored with 10 minutes to go, but Arwel Robson missed what proved to be a crucial conversion as Maisey split the uprights with a penalty late on to seal a thrilling win.
“The lads are going hard and there’ll be a lot of disappointed boys there,” Cattle added.
“But the good thing about rugby is you go again next week, so just turn that frown upside down as they say.”
Related internet links
- Cornish Pirates
