Cornish Pirates draw at Doncaster Knights despite leading by 19 points

Cornish Pirates travelled to Doncaster seeking to avenge a 39-28 defeat at The Mennaye in December

Coach Gavin Cattle was frustrated after Cornish Pirates spurned a 19-point lead to draw at 14-man Doncaster Knights.

The visitors led 10-0 at the break through two Morgan Nelson tries, while the Knights had Maliq Holden red-carded before the break after a melee.

A penalty try and a Will Trewin score made it 22-3 but Doncaster rallied with two converted tries in four minutes.

Pirates, who gave away 21 penalties in total, then conceded a last-gasp converted try to make it 27-27.

Despite picking up a bonus point, the draw, just the second in the Championship this season, saw Pirates slip to third, two points behind Coventry and 12 behind leaders Ealing, who visit the Mennaye on 5 April.

A "baffled" Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall: "I do not feel satisfied with three points, it's the absolute opposite, but three points and four tries coming here is never an easy task.

"Would I have taken a draw this morning? No. Would I have taken it in the last two minutes? Probably yes. We could have lost it at the end.

"In that domineering position we were in at half-time, with then down to 14, one of our main aims was to keep 15 on the pitch. We've gone down to 14, I'm not sure if it was a yellow card, but we just seemed to keep them alive."

The returning Kyle Moyle scored to make it 27-17 with 18 minutes remaining and Cattle admitted: "I thought that was the killer blow and we'd kick on from there but we just kept giving them ins, whether that's through the penalty count or mistakes.

"I am very frustrated. When you're in a position like that, on the road, you've got a bonus point try, was that in the back of our minds, taken the foot off the gas, I'm not sure.

"There was a big difference in our physicality from the first half to the second half. We've got to look at why that is. I am a bit baffled by it. 21 penalties is unheard of. We'll have to have a look at ourselves but also the referee's interpretation as well.

"We gave them opportunity after opportunity, that second half was so frustrating. We piggy-backed them up the pitch basically, we didn't make it difficult.

"If we're to draw positives we put ourselves in a position to win that game. We had to work hard and front up. There's elements of the game we can pull upon."

Pirates welcome table-topping Ealing in their next game and Cattle added: "We're all looking forward to that. I was hoping coming away with five points you're closing the gap and putting a bit of pressure on Ealing.

"We've let that one slip but we have got to go and make up for that and upset the odds maybe."