Cornish Pirates impress in six-try Nottingham win

Cornish Pirates are on a three-game winning streak having lost their opening three matches of the season

Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle has praised his side after they came back to win 36-28 at Nottingham.

The Pirates trailed 21-17 at half time, having had Arwel Robson and Billy Young sent to the sin-bin.

But they ran in three tries after the break to seal a third-successive bonus-point win and consolidate sixth place in the Champ table.

"I think we executed really well to start the game," Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"Things we had identified in the week, the boys were on song with it and then we had the blip, didn't we? Arwel went for the interception, got the yellow card, then we were under a lot of pressure, got another yellow card.

"But there was a lot of lot of good things and you look at the second half and we managed the moments.

"We were physical, good fight in defence at the end and a couple of good tries as well," said Cattle, who had been critical of his side after their win over Caldy last week.

Iwan Price-Thomas gave Pirates an 11th-minute lead before Matty Ward made it 12-0 soon after.

Jack Dickinson pulled a try back before Arthur Relton scored for the visitors, who led 17-7 only for Nottingham's Dickinson and Osian Thomas to cross in quick succession just before the break with Pirates short-handed.

But Relton and Ward added further tries in the second half and Harry Yates sealed the win after James Cherry's try had earned a losing bonus point for the hosts.

"We're pretty good at rising to the challenge with our backs against the wall," added Cattle, who had a 4-4 split on the bench because of injuries in his forwards.

"It's been a challenge in training, it was a challenge this week preparation-wise, but the boys have turned up and put a spirited performance in."