Cornish Pirates deserved to win - Chris Stirling

Fly-half Jonny Bentley marked his return from injury with a 20th-minute try

Cornish Pirates boss Chris Stirling says his side deserved to come away from London Welsh with a victory after their 17-17 draw in the Championship.

Jonny Bentley and Grant Pointer's tries put the Pirates 14-5 up at half time.

But a Gordon Ross penalty and but three late penalties from ex-Plymouth Albion skipper Alex Davies saw Welsh come back to salvage a draw.

"It was a game we deserved to win and probably should have won," Stirling told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"But we didn't because we weren't clinical enough in certain aspects."

And Stirling said his side would have gone on to win had they not given away a try to Welsh's Robert Lewis right on half-time.

"Those five points gave Welsh a bit of momentum, it was just a system error that let us down and let the half-back score," he said.

The Pirates are third in the Championship and host second-placed Rotherham next Sunday, with Stirling confident his side still will improve greatly as the season goes on.

"Everything's there, we've just got to keep working hard and keep our heads down and our noses down and take these ones on the chin and keep building.

"I'm confident that we've got a lot of development in us so it's a nice place to be," he said.