Cornish Pirates need more leaders to help poor results, says coach Alan Paver

Caldy's win over Cornish Pirates was just their second since being promoted to the Championship in the summer

Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Alan Paver says his squad need more leaders to support captain John Stevens after their 15-14 loss at Caldy.

The Pirates threw away a 14-3 half-time lead to suffer a fifth defeat from seven Championship matches.

The loss saw the club slip to eighth place in the Championship, having not won in the league since October.

"John is an exceptional leader out there, but he cannot do it on his own," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"There is obviously some leadership development needed within the whole of that squad, and John at the moment is trying to drive that forward, as we are as coaches.

"I would expect us to be better next week and better again, and I'm hoping at some point we'll get over this patch that we're in, but it's an extremely frustrating time."

Paver felt his side put failed to control large parts of the second half in their first-ever league trip to the Merseyside club.

"There has to be sustained periods of pressure, we can't put ourselves under sustained periods of pressure," added Paver.

"The answer is the obvious, we've just got to get better - our line-out's got to get better, our scrum's got to get better, the contact's got to get better, the way we manage the referee has got to get better.

"At some point you win games and at some point you end up in the top half of the league, and eventually you end up in the top four and eventually you end up pushing for promotion.

"It's not rocket science, it's just a painful process to go through."