Cornish Pirates warned against complacency after bonus-point start

Cornish Pirates ran in five tries in their season-opener at home to Richmond last week

Cornish Pirates joint head coach Alan Paver has warned his side against any complacency ahead of their trip to Hartpury in the Championship.

The full-time Pirates had a comfortable bonus-point win over part-time Richmond in their opening game last week.

They host title favourites Ealing next weekend, but Paver says his side must concentrate on their next challenge.

"You put a group of players on a pitch and on any given day if you're slightly off they'll beat you," Paver said.

"You may have had a couple of late injuries, you may have had to change things around, you're not quite hitting the same output as you were the week before and next thing you know you're in a fight and it's a flip of a coin sometimes."

The Pirates famously beat relegated former European champions Saracens on the Covid-19 delayed opening day of last season before finishing fourth in the truncated campaign.

"I've been in the Championship too long to take any game for granted, I really don't," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"You've only got to look at Ampthill last year, if you were a betting man you'd have said we'd have walked that game, but they deserved their victory.

"So for us going up to Hartpury we will be making sure we've ticked all the boxes and we're getting the guys in the right frame of mind."