Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle hailed his side’s character as they held out for a 17-12 Champ win over Nottingham.
Luke Rokomoce gave Nottingham a fifth-minute lead but tries from Josh King, Sol Moody and Tomi Agbongbon put Pirates 17-5 up after 22 minutes.
It was an advantage they held until the final quarter when Rokomoce went over again to set up a tense finish.
But despite strong pressure from the visitors, Pirates held on for a third win in succession and leapfrogged Nottingham into seventh place in the Champ.
The victory marked a successful return to Mennaye Field for Pirates after two months away as storm damage to the ground’s infrastructure was repaired.
“I did feel that we deserved that [win], I would have been pretty gutted for the lads [had they not won], but they showed some great character at the end there,” Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.
“We played some really good stuff in the first half. I think we missed early pressure in that second half to put the game to bed and you’re always in danger then – one try and obviously they’re back in it and all it takes is a penalty in the middle of the field and that’s what happened.
“But I thought our discipline was good, our set-piece was relatively good, we showed some good stuff, could have maybe managed the middle third a bit better, but it was a good, gutsy performance – a little bit ugly at the end but it was gutsy.”
