Cornish Pirates: Alan Paver hails bench impact as 'massive' in 20-12 win at Bedford

Cornish Pirates coach Alan Paver praised his side's 'spirit' in staging a late comeback against Bedford Blues

Cornish Pirates boss Alan Paver hailed the impact of his side's bench as they staged a second-half comeback to win 20-12 at Bedford Blues.

The Pirates were down by nine points with 10 minutes to play.

A late try from Antonio Kiri Kiri pulled them back to 12-10, before Arwel Robson kicked a penalty to edge them ahead by a point.

Replacement Shae Tucker ran over in the final minute to secure the win and move them up to third in the league.

"We've got good players through the whole squad and we back our bench to come on and make a massive impact, whoever that is," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"So today we asked them to come on, raise the energy, they did, we kept going, we were persistent and we got a reward at the end.

"Maybe some people will say maybe we stole the game. Some days you've got to win ugly and today we definitely did that and we're over the moon.

Reuben Bird-Tulloch gave Bedford a 5-0 lead at half-time and when Kiri Kiri was sent to the sin-bin after the break, a Richard Lane try extended their lead to 12 points.

Robson got the Pirates their first points with a penalty kick and when his side went back up to 15 players, Paver rang the changes bringing on six replacements.

"We started with the front row and then from there we start to add more energy in and around the pitch," he said. "The errors were still there, but the intent was there and that's what we kept hanging on to.

"Just saying we need field position, field position, and eventually we did with a couple of outstanding kicks and we were able to get ourselves in the right areas and convert at the right time," Paver continued.

"As you can see the lads have got spirit, they stayed in there, they got a couple of crucial decisions towards the end."

Third-placed Pirates will face Jersey Reds next Sunday, who were beaten 23-10 by promotion favourites Ealing on Saturday to drop to fourth.