Cornish Pirates: Alan Paver will remain patient will youngsters

The Pirates start their Championship season against Yorkshire Carnegie

Cornish Pirates player-coach Alan Paver has admitted it will take some time for the youngsters in the side to acclimatise to Championship rugby.

The Pirates begin their 2014-15 campaign with a home game against Yorkshire Carnegie on Saturday.

"There is nothing that is going to prepare you for Championship rugby," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"As a young player you're going to get beat up for a while but then eventually you come out the other side of it."

At the end of last season the Pirates released 12 players, including back row Kyle Marriott and lock Gary Johnson.

And 36-year-old Paver said that it has been quite an adjustment for the older players in the side with an injection of youth being added to squad.

With captain Chris Morgan ruled out with a head injury for Carnegie, the lock knows his side will be up against it.

"The word I would use to describe the squad is 'interesting'," he said.

"We have got half a squad that are hardened Championship players and old and the other half are spring chickens that are learning.

"It has been an unusual learning curve for some of them and I think for some of the senior players have had to learn to nurture and not shout as much as they have done previously at some of the young boys.

"We have a lot of players who have not really played in the Championship. This is where the battle starts."

Cornish Pirates: Evans (capt), Goss, Riley, James, Moyle, Hallett, Kessell, Andrew, Channon, Jamieson, Garratt, Barry, Parker, Cheesman, McGlone.

Replacements: Carpenter, Ford-Robinson, Gendall, Graulich, Atkinson, Cattle, Pope