CORNISH Pirates joint head coach Gavin Cattle felt their second half performance looked more like a ‘Pirates team’ after they fought back to beat Cambridge 45-18 on Sunday afternoon.

Tries from visiting wingers Eli Caven (2) and Kwaku Asiedu plus a Steff James penalty put the ‘Blood and Sand’ on course for a shock victory, but the Pirates answered with 31 unanswered points to ensure the points stayed at the Mennaye Field.

Cattle said: “Look, our performance in the first half was naturally disappointing, because if players drop off individually then the collective effort also drops and that is what it looked like. 

“I thought that John Stevens was unlucky to be yellow carded, as in his efforts he was trying to spark up the team, which was just what we needed, and you could just tell by the body language that for whatever reasons we hadn’t got the energy levels right.

“Thankfully, in the second half, we found our way to put certain things together that made us look something like a Pirates team, with Alex Everett to the fore and Moyler (Kyle Moyle) also helping to ignite our play as he is finding his form again.”

The Pirates try scorers were Ruaridh Dawson, Ioan Evans, Kyle Moyle, Robin Wedlake (2) and Matt McNab with fly-half Tom Pittman adding three conversions and as many penalties.