GAVIN Cattle says the Cornish Pirates will make the most of their current break to not only recharge the batteries, but also get a number of their walking wounded back up and running.

In what has been a testing few weeks for the Penzance-based club, they were at last able to celebrate in style last weekend when they rounded off their Premiership Rugby Cup campaign with a 43-7 victory over visiting Hartpury.

A lengthy injury list, plus the recall of a number of their on-loan players to parent clubs, meant Cattle and fellow joint head coach, Alan Paver, were literally down to the bare bones in terms of their selection.

To their credit, however, they duly overcame the adversity, producing an impressive performance against their fellow Championship rivals at the Mennaye Field.

Iwan Price-Thomas, Cam Jones, Sol Moody (2), Will Trewin and Charlie McCaig all helped themselves to tries in the win with Bruce Houston and McCaig sharing the kicking duties.

With no Championship game until March 21 when London Scottish are the visitors, Cattle is hoping the enforced break will serve as a timely boost for him and his squad.

“We’ve got this week off, then we have a two-week block that we’re going to treat like a mini pre-season,” he explained. “We’ll look to get through that as best we can, then we’ve got the Royal Navy here in a friendly (March 14), before we’re back into the Championship.

“In a way the break has come at a good time for us in terms of giving the boys a rest, as well as getting a few others hopefully back to fitness. With the Championship coming back soon, it’ll be a chance for us to the fire the engines up again.

“We’ve had our eyes on this block for a little while, so we’ve had a few plans in place, then we’ll be looking to tear it up each week.”