GAVIN Cattle praised his Cornish Pirates side as they maintained their push for the play-offs in this season’s Championship with a 49-21 victory at bottom side Cambridge.

Fresh from recent wins over London Scottish, Caldy and Nottingham, the Pirates proved the dominant force at Ellgia Fields, claiming their 10th league victory of the season to move up to sixth place in the standings.

“Cambridge are a proud team and they’ve shown that,” said joint-head coach Cattle. “I know the league position would suggest otherwise, but they’re a spirited, nuggety sort of side, so we knew we had to be on it today emotionally.

“It was ugly at times but there was some really good stuff within it as well, so really pleased, five points which keeps us in touch with that top six.”

After Cornish Pirates’ fly-half Louie Sinclair kicked the game off, it was the home team who took an early lead when Cambridge skipper Dan Eckersley claimed the game’s opening try, which was converted by former ‘Pirate’ Ruaridh Dawson.

That lead, however, proved short-lived as back roared the visitors, levelling the match up shortly after when Pirates’ captain Alex Everett picked a lovely line to burst through for the try, which was converted by Sinclair.

The score seemed to ignite the Cornishmen and it came as no surprise when they added to their tally, this time with a penalty try that also resulted in a yellow card for Cambridge’s Tongan international fly-half, Otumaka Mausia.

For Cambridge the alertness of Dawson was always a threat before he left the field injured, but it was a pop-up pass from Pirates’ centre Chester Ribbons that led to wing Arthur Relton scoring a converted try.

In time remaining before the break, Cambridge were awarded a penalty try, before the Pirates then took a 28-14 lead into half-time after first a sizzling run on the right Ben Cambriani, then Sinclair’s deft kick out of hand, enabled Ribbons to gather and dot down for the bonus point score.

Although the Pirates had a healthy buffer at the interval, it was the home side who started the brighter on the resumption. Although they huffed and puffed in attack, they couldn’t make any significant inroads into the scoreline and it was their rivals who extended their lead with a converted score from Angus Mawson.

Approaching the hour mark, a try touched down by centre Jasper Sorrell, which was converted by replacement scrum-half James Thompson, narrowed the deficit for the home team, but only briefly.

Pirates’ No.8 Tomi Agbongbon, who has been in outstanding form recently, took off from 40 metres, before blasting his way to the line for his third try in as many games. Sinclair once again added the extras.

Fifty plus points for the Pirates now looked very much ‘on’, but ultimately it was a final try of the match scored by Morgan Nelson, converted by Arwel Robson, that saw an end to a hard fought and enjoyable contest.

“I’m really pleased with some of the execution, I think we left a few out there as well which is always good that you’re creating,” added Cattle. “We got lucky once or twice as well, but I think we were the dominant team today and the pleasing thing for us is that we stuck the task, got the emotion right and came away with the points.”