Late Ealing loss 'a sickener' for Cornish Pirates

Gavin Cattle's side finished seven points behind Ealing last season

Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle has described his side's last-minute 29-24 loss to Championship leaders Ealing as "a sickener".

Rob Farrar went over in the 80th minute as the reigning champions came away from Penzance with a second bonus-point win of the season.

Pirates cancelled out three Ealing tries before the late winner as the hosts earned a losing bonus point.

Robin Wedlake's 38th-minute try made it 10-10 at the break after Tom Collins had gone over five minutes earlier.

Matt Cornish crossed for the Trailfinders five minutes after the break before Pirates earned a penalty-try soon after.

Toby Wilson re-established Ealing's advantage three minutes later before Iwan Price-Thomas again restored parity with eight minutes to go before Farrar's late winner.

"Losing in that manners is a sickener," Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"We've been down to the bare bones in terms of training this week, so to turn a performance out like that with a lot of positive energy, there's a lot of good things to take away from that game.

"The way they put a performance together tonight, we played a lot in Ealing's 22, I felt we put them under a lot of pressure.

"Physically, we didn't look like we were out-powered, I thought we were in the race and at times dominant.

"I'm just gutted for them because they put a lot of energy and effort into that and you can see they were fighting for each other at the end."