Cornish Pirates aim to turn 'frustrating' form says coach Alan Paver

Cornish Pirates suffered a 22-16 loss at Hartpury in their last game of 2022 shortly before Christmas

Cornish Pirates joint head coach Alan Paver hopes his side can improve on their "frustrating" Championship form.

The Pirates are ninth in the 12-team league after four wins from 10 matches ahead of Saturday's re-arranged game with Doncaster Knights in Penzance.

"What's been difficult is we see the improvement internally, but we haven't seen it on the field in terms of wins," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"We're going through a very frustrating time."

He added: "But that said, we are hopefully ready for take two in the second part of the season."

While results have not gone the way the club would like, there have been some positives on the field.

While only bottom side London Scottish have scored fewer points than the Pirates this season, only league leaders Ealing have conceded fewer than the 202 that have been scored against the Cornish side.

"I've got to say the defensive line-out aspect and the defensive line-out maul has been a huge asset to us this season, which has stopped teams accumulating lots of points," added Paver.

"That said, we've got to control the middle of the field a bit better, we've got to get down into those corners and we've got to start applying more pressure ourselves.

"We know what we need to do, we know how to do it, it's just being able to get on and do it on the weekend."

The club have won just two of their last eight matches in the league and last tasted Championship success against London Scottish at the end of October.

"We've modified our game plan a little bit to go back to a more traditional game which is more territory-based," Paver continued.

"Any coaching group will always be faced with that question, which is how much do you change and when do you change or do you keep absolute stability?

"I think you only know as you work through the games, and if you get the wins it's obviously the right decision, and if you don't you're always wondering 'should I have done it differently?'"