CORNISH Pirates joint head coach, Gavin Cattle, admitted his side were ‘second best’ as they kicked off the New Year in the Championship with a 34-10 defeat at Hartpury.

A dominant first half display, one which yielded four tries for the hosts, proved the undoing of the Pirates, whose mounting woes in the back five of the scrum continue to hinder them.

Although much improved after the break, including scoring a fine try through the returning Alex Everrett, the Cornishmen - who had come into the game on the back of five successive victories - had left themselves with too much to do.

“After how we performed in the first half, we just left ourselves with too big a hill to climb,” said Cattle. “The endeavour was there throughout, but as this league shows, if you have an off day, teams will punish you. We’ve done it to others this season, Coventry and Doncaster will testify to that, but we’ll take our medicine and we will move on.”

With the Pirates shorn of a number of key forwards, either through injury or recalls by parent clubs, it meant the visitors were forced into significant change up front ahead of kick-off and Hartpury duly made them pay, especially at set-piece time.

“I guess it’s the bad luck we’ve got at the moment,” added Cattle. “It seems every injury or players that are missing are those around the back five of the scrum.

“Alfie Bell only joined us a few days ago, Finelan [Coleman] at the start of the week, so you’re never going to get the same product with just two days of training under your belt. That said, we'll keep plugging away and we'll look to build on what was a much better second half from us.”

The task gets no easier for the Pirates, who this week travel to league leaders Ealing Trailfinders on Saturday (3pm).