By Phil Westren

CORNISH Pirates joint head coach Gavin Cattle admits his side ‘need a win’ when they return to Championship action on Friday night against visiting Chinnor (7.30pm).

The Pirates rounded off the first half of their Premiership Cup Pool E campaign with a defeat at league rivals Hartpury on Saturday having suffered earlier defeats to top-flight outfits Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester.

Speaking at the end of the game at the weekend which saw the visitors lead 19-10 before going down 41-26, Cattle commented: “Firstly, looking at the first half we started well and created a good platform to take the game away from them. However, we then came out in the second half and just gifted them momentum, which was obviously disappointing.

“To sum up where we are as a team we are in that messy middle at present, where we see certain elements of our game improving and others less so. We can look at things tactically, whilst there were too many errors, lapses in discipline, and other things that we need to look at, learn from, and work on.

“I thought our lineout was better in difficult conditions, and when riding a wave in the first half we looked dangerous and sharp off turnover, and our set piece held its own. As for the second half, the start was disastrous and we lost momentum, which is difficult to get back. It is part of our learning and comes with experience, and unfortunately the reality is that we gave them a tsunami of momentum for them to take advantage of.

“We will look back at the game on Monday with a view to learning and striving to fix what we can. Much has been learnt from these Cup games, everyone is doing their utmost, and we now look forward to the return of league rugby where we need a win.”