Cornish Pirates target top-five finish in Championship

Cornish Pirates beat Caldy 28-21 in their last Championship fixture earlier this month

Cornish Pirates coach Alan Paver says his side are hopeful of finishing fifth in the Championship this season.

After a difficult start the club have won four of their past five league games to move into the top five and head a group of six teams all aiming for a fifth-placed finish.

The Pirates have not finished outside of the top five since 2017.

"We're still very ambitious to see if we can finish in the fifth slot," Paver told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"The first part of the season didn't quite go to plan," added Paver, whose side won just twice in the league between mid-September and the end of 2022.

"We didn't quite get the rewards that we thought we should get.

"But we've put in a lot of hard work and that's seen us climb steadily through the league and put us into fifth position.

"Does it matter if we finish fifth or sixth? Possibly not, but to the players we want to be able to look back and say 'actually the second part of the season was a significant improvement and it shows in our league status'."

With three league games to go, as well as a Championship Cup semi-final at home to Jersey Reds in early May, Paver says the club are already deep into planning for the 2023-24 campaign.

"We've already got the bones of what our pre-season will look like.

"We're starting to get the squad together, looking at our relationship with Exeter and what dual registration players we've got there, and identifying potential young men who are aspiring to play in our league.

"There's a lot to do, you start early and I'm sure this will go into May and June, but we're starting to get things in order now."