Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle says he is not downhearted by his side’s 41-14 home loss to Champ leaders Ealing.
The Pirates were 14-0 at half time after tries from Geordie Gwynn and Michael Dykes before conceding three more tries in the opening 15 minutes of the second half to trail 29-0.
But replacement Matt Pritchard’s try stemmed the tide for the hosts before a quick pair of Kyle Hatherell tries for Ealing stretched their lead.
Alessandro Heaney’s last-minute try for Pirates added some respectability to the score.
The loss – Pirates’ fourth in succession – sees them drop to eighth in the Champ table while Ealing are nine points clear at the top after 12 wins from 12.
“They’re well layered and they’ve got boys who’ve been there now for two or three years and you could just see they’re just very cohesive,” Cattle said of Ealing to BBC Radio Cornwall.
“We’ve had a lot of change in our pack, you look at that back row, it’s the first time they’ve ever played together and then you’re bringing a hooker off the bench who was covering back row, and that’s the difference.
“They’ve got a quality back row, a quality back five in the scrum and then they bring another layer on, as we know we haven’t got that depth in our squad.
“I’m not downhearted with what we put out there, I think it’s just a product of what Ealing are at the minute.”
