Cornish Pirates Coach Paver Notes Progress Despite Cup Defeat

Joint-head coach Alan Paver expressed pride in the Cornish Pirates’ performance following their 36-28 defeat to Gloucester in the Premiership Rugby Cup. The team secured a try-scoring bonus point at Kingsholm, with scores from Will Gibson, Josh King, and two by Sol Moody, which maintained the competitiveness of the match. This result marked an improvement from the previous week, where the Pirates conceded 10 tries against Gloucester’s Premiership rivals, Exeter. Despite this, the Penzance-based club has now suffered its sixth consecutive loss across all competitions and currently sits at the bottom of its Premiership Rugby Cup pool after the initial two rounds of fixtures. Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Paver commented on the opposition’s strength, stating, “I think Gloucester’s balance of the side, probably was about right for the competition and it gave us an opportunity to get out there and play some rugby.” He added, “I thought it was very competitive from start to finish and our lads will be proud of what they have done out there.” However, Paver also acknowledged areas for development, noting, “That said, there was a couple of errors within the game that we will be disappointed with and there’s a lot of things there that we need to practise and need to keep working on.” The Pirates are scheduled to play their Championship rivals, Hartpury, in two weeks, which will be their final fixture in the first phase of cup matches. Paver expressed his hope that the upcoming two-week training period will contribute to his team’s improvement after a challenging start to the season. Paver further elaborated on their strategic focus, stating, “We’ve identified three key areas that we want to be better at when we get out of this, a lot of it’s based around set piece.” He emphasized the importance of fundamental play: “Never forget set-piece is king, you’ve got to be able to launch from line-out and a stable scrum.” He continued, “You’ve got to be able to pressure opposition line-out and scrum, and you’ve got to be able to nail the basics of your game – that could be your box exits, it can be other basic areas of your game.” Concluding his remarks on training, he said, “We’ve got to get better to in those key areas and we put a focus on it in training and hopefully when we get out of the next couple of weeks we’ll be better again.” Reflecting on the team’s mindset, Paver shared, “After last week, which was a soul searching week for us, we just wanted to make sure that we could get the energy right, get on the pitch, and make sure that we can put a gritty performance in.” He concluded by noting the narrow margin of defeat: “We were in that game all the way through, it was just small little things, and at the end of the day it wasn’t quite enough to get over the line.”