Cornish Pirates fight back to beat Cambridge 45-18

Robin Wedlake (right) scored twice for Pirates as they ran in six tries

Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle says his side's change in mentality ensured they overcame a first-half deficit to beat bottom side Cambridge 45-18 in the Championship.

Two Eli Caven tries and one from Kwaku Asiedu cancelled out scores from Pirates' Ruaridh Dawson and Ioan Evans as Cornish skipper John Stevens was sin-binned towards the end of a first half that saw them trail 18-14.

But after the break Robin Wedlake scored twice as Kyle Moyle and Matt McNab also crossed for a bonus-point win.

The victory consolidates third place in the Championship for the Pirates, who are seven points behind second-placed Coventry and six in front of fourth-placed Bedford.

"If you drop off five per cent individually the collective effort drops and that's what it looked like," Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"We were waiting for somebody do something - John Stevens tried to do that with a big hit, it was quite unlucky, obviously the ref gets a snapshot, but it was what it was, we could see what he was trying to do - spark the team up with a big shot, and that's what we needed.

"We just didn't get the energy right in that first half, you could talk all you want tactically, ultimately it's an attitude and a mental state, so they had to find a way of getting that.

"Thankfully, second half we put something together that looks something like the Pirates team."