Cornish Pirates overcome half-time deficit to beat Ampthill 46-24

Morgan Nelson's hat-trick saw him become Cornish Pirates' top try scorer this season

Cornish Pirates recovered from a 17-15 half-time deficit to beat Ampthill 46-24 and go fifth in the Championship.

Frankie Nowell got a try 10 minutes into his full debut while Morgan Nelson crossed in the first half.

Nelson went on to score two more tries after the break while Ben Grubb and Joe Elderkin also scored as Bruce Houston kicked 16 points.

"We were just a little bit inaccurate in that first half with some of our exits," said coach Louis Tonkin.

"We put ourselves under a lot of pressure, maybe some unforced errors in our own 22.

"We just had some small little fix-ups in the second half, controlled the ball and controlled our exit game a lot better and played in the right areas of the field which was critical," he told BBC Radio Cornwall.

The Pirates have won three of their opening four matches, but face second-placed Doncaster and leaders Ealing in their next two matches.

"There's still loads of growth in this team, the first half was pretty average for us," added Tonkin.

"There's a different calibre of packs coming to us in the next few weeks so we've got to do a lot of hard work in those areas.

"We're definitely not he finished article so it's exciting to see what this young group can do."