Louie Tonkin: Cornish Pirates coach to join Ealing at end of season

Louie Tonkin has been with Cornish pirates since August 2021

Cornish Pirates coach Louie Tonkin will leave the club at the end of the season to join Championship rivals Ealing.

Tonkin has been an assistant to joint-head coaches Gavin Cattle and Alan Paver since succeeding Chris Morgan in the summer of 2021.

He had previously been an academy coach with Exeter as well as having taken charge of sides in his native Wales.

"It's been without question the most enjoyable job I've ever had," Tonkin told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"I'm hugely grateful for the opportunity that Gav and Paves gave me that time ago, it was late in the pre-season when Chris went to Worcester, so it was an opportunity for me to come in and cut my teeth in the professional game, which I hadn't done before."

He is the second major off-field departure at the club in a week, after chief executive Rebecca Thomas announced she would be leaving in the summer as the future of second-tier rugby union in England remains unclear.

Tonkin says working with Pirates stalwarts Paver and Cattle has been huge for his development as he prepares to join the ambitious West London side.

"We've worked brilliantly together for three years, I love them to bits, they're great men first and foremost, but they're also fantastic coaches," Tonkin added.

"I've learnt so much, I'm so grateful for the opportunity they gave me.

"It's just been such a great experience and it took us weeks and weeks and weeks to get an outcome on this decision, but it is just something that we had to do."