Cornish Pirates claim biggest win in almost six years

Former Gloucester winger Matty Ward scored his first hat-trick for Cornish Pirates

Cornish Pirates' "well-rounded" performance in their 52-0 Champ win over Cambridge has been praised by joint-head coach Gavin Cattle.

The Pirates ran in eight tries as they registered their biggest win since beating Yorkshire Carnegie by the same margin in January 2020.

Matty Ward led the charge with a hat-trick as Pirates crossed four times in each half to secure a fourth successive win and extend their unbeaten run to five matches.

"I just thought today we started the game with the right energy," said Cattle.

"We weren't very accurate in that first 10 minutes, but then once we got into the game I felt we carried out the gameplan well.

"We wanted to stress their 13 channel, we got a lot of joy out of that and again [it's] two weeks on the trot that the boys have shown maturity in terms of sticking to the gameplan as well."

Dan Hiscocks opened the scoring in the ninth minute before Ward went over twice and Ben Cambriani dotted down as the hosts led 26-0 at the break.

Harry Yates got Pirates' fifth try three minutes after the restart, Iwan Price-Thomas scored the sixth after an hour and Zak Wimbush went over 10 minutes later before Ward completed his hat-trick in the final moments of the match.

The win lifts Pirates up to fourth place in the Champ after seven matches, nine points behind leaders Ealing.

"I felt that we looked solid in defence," added Cattle. "Nilling a team in the Championship is not easy, but then obviously taking your chances in attack as well.

"So it's a well-rounded performance - we know that we're on the right track but there's still growth, especially in and around our set-piece."