Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle says his side were “firmly second best” as they lost 44-12 at Doncaster in the Champ.
Having taken a first-minute lead through Josh King Pirates were 13-7 down at the break as Zach Kerr and Joe Margetts crossed for the hosts.
The Knights overran Pirates after the interval as Kerr got a second shortly after the restart before Margetts completed his hat-trick to lead 32-7 after 56 minutes.
Fred Davies added two more tries for the hosts before Arthur Relton scored a consolation try in the final minute for the Cornish side.
“I think first you’ve got to give credit to a good, very well motivated Doncaster team,” Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.
“I thought their collision was excellent, it’s a collision sport, you’ve got to contest possession, I just felt they were very strong in that area and we were firmly second best.
“It was tough to back up positives. I thought we had the intent, but you’ve got to give credit to a good defensive display from them.
“I felt that we could have moved the point of contact a bit better in that first half.
“Looking at Doncaster they certainly picked up their light speed this week. In recent weeks they’ve been nowhere near that and you can see there was an emotional response from them today.”
