Cornish Pirates Secure Fourth Consecutive Victory, Coach Attributes Success to Team Focus

Joint-head coach Gavin Cattle stated that the Cornish Pirates are “in the zone” following their fourth consecutive Championship victory, a match in which they established a 19-0 advantage over Doncaster with a quarter of the game remaining. The Pirates, who previously endured a streak of seven consecutive losses across all competitions, have now secured four straight wins, including a 19-14 triumph against Doncaster Knights at The Mennaye. This win maintained the Penzance-based team’s sixth position in the Championship standings, having achieved five victories in nine games. Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, Cattle remarked, “We were in the zone today, we have been the last three or four weeks. We have rode our luck a little bit, but we’ve also created our own luck as well. We talk about the rugby gods. The rugby gods stay a little bit closer if you’re doing all the right things when people aren’t watching. I genuinely think these boys have put a lot of graft in in the last four weeks and I’m glad they’re getting a bit of reward.” Arthur Relton scored a try in the 29th minute, giving the Pirates a 7-0 lead by halftime. Following the break, on-loan Exeter Chiefs lock Lewis Pearson and scrum-half Dan Hiscocks each crossed the try line within a three-minute period, 10 minutes into the second half, extending the home team’s lead to 19-0. Doncaster, despite having several promising opportunities in the first half, eventually responded with a 65th-minute try from Ben Murphy. Nine minutes later, former Pirate Maliq Holden added a second try amidst windy conditions. Cattle further commented, “I thought that was a real gritty performance. 19-0 up and then a couple of late tries put us in a bit of an ending that we didn’t want to the game, it was a little less relaxed, but the effort was massive. I’m just proud of that really. We absorbed a lot of pressure, but that’s what it’s about when you have conditions like that. You know it’s going to turn at some point and we took some really good tries as well.”