Pirates pair looking to attack from the start
AS the new Championship campaign looms large on the horizon, so Gavin Cattle is ready to embark on his latest seasonal voyage with the Cornish Pirates.
Alongside Alan Paver, they have been the mainstays at the Mennaye for over two decades, initially as players, but now as the brains trust of the coaching team, looking to steer the club onwards and upwards.
Together they have forged a lasting partnership that is not only trusted by the top brass, including new CEO Sally Pettipher, but by those who they look to oversee on a weekly basis in club colours.
Over the years they have been responsible for helping ignite the careers of a plethora of young stars looking to make their mark in the game. The list is certainly sizeable, but so too are the ringing endorsements that come from those who have served under their coaching gaze.
Now, they are ready to go once more, a point underlined by Cattle, who said: “We’re a young and enthusiastic group, who are all chomping at the bit ahead of the new season. The energy within the group and during pre-season has been excellent and it does rub off on us as coaches as well.
“We’ve got a group of good men down here who we’ve brought together and who are working very hard for one another, so we’re very optimistic about what we can achieve this season.”
And so the Pirates should be, particularly after last season where they finished runners-up to Ealing Trailfinders in English rugby‘s second tier.
“Last season was really good in a lot of ways,” added Cattle. “What we achieved was done through sticking together, working hard for one another and just playing some very good rugby each week. That’s the foundations that we laid and now we’re looking to build on those again.”
Pre-season saw them start with a 47-5 win at nearby Redruth, after which they travelled to Exeter Chiefs and saw themselves on the wrong side of a 46-24 loss.
“We’ve only been together for a few weeks, so maybe this game was a little bit soon for us,” added Cattle following the game at Sandy Park. “What it has done, however, is give us a measuring stick of where we are in the grand scheme of things.
“We knew there were one of two deficiencies in our game and Exeter exposed them, like you would expect a top Premiership side to do. Our kick game was a bit loose and our set-piece struggled at times, but what I did see was a side that didn’t give up.
“Character in any side is something you can’t coach or train, that has to come from within, and our boys showed that in abundance out there. There were positives to take from the game, which is great, but there were also things that we know we have to tighten up on.
“We’ve got a couple of weeks until our first game [against Nottingham], so we’ll go away and assess things, work on one or two areas, then really look to attack the new season. As I said, there is a real buzz about the place and that always sets the tone.”
