Joint-Head Coach Gavin Cattle Finds “Great Exposure” in Cornish Pirates’ Significant Cup Defeat

The Cornish Pirates, under joint-head coach Gavin Cattle, suffered a 68-7 defeat to Exeter in the Premiership Rugby Cup. Cattle described this loss as “great exposure” for his players, noting that his team has not secured a victory since the season’s inaugural weekend. Exeter, despite having lost all six of their Premiership matches prior to this game, fielded a near-full strength team, resulting in the Pirates conceding 10 tries. This marked the fifth consecutive defeat across all competitions for Cattle’s team, following a challenging beginning to their Championship season. Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Cattle stated, “It was great exposure for our lads, I know the scoreline but there was some real good learning.” He continued, “I’m proud of the effort. We tried to stick in there chasing back and scrapping, but science took over.” Cattle further elaborated on the disparity, saying, “The size and power of those lads on that pitch who are Premiership starters week in week out, and there’s our boys on a journey.” He concluded, “It’s never nice to take a loss like that, a bit of a hiding, but there was learning within it.” Exeter had made only six alterations to the team that was defeated by Harlequins on Sunday, with England forward Ethan Roots being one of the new inclusions. For Exeter, Paul Brown-Bampoe secured a hat-trick of tries, while both Will Rigg and Josh Hodge contributed two tries each. Cattle also remarked, “I think that’s the first time in a long time that we’ve had an out-and-out Premiership team.” He clarified, “Sometimes it’s littered with stars, but that was a Premiership team that have just missed out on a few wins and been unlucky.” He concluded by stating, “We caught the wrong end of their frustration.”