Pirates push Gloucester close in Premiership Rugby Cup
Premiership Rugby Cup
Cornish Pirates (5) 19
Tries: Cannon, Hocking, Agbonbon Cons: Houston 2
Gloucester (7) 26
Tries: Eite 2, Barton, Butler Cons: Barton 3
Gloucester survived a scare as they beat spirited Championship side Cornish Pirates 26-19 in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
The Premiership side went ahead in the third minute when Danny Eite powered over after good pressure.
But an unconverted try from Pirates' Matt Cannon soon after made it 7-5 - a score which did not change as the half wore on - as Pirates defended their line well at times, while Gloucester spurned a number of good chances.
Pirates almost went over soon after the restart before Gloucester soaked up the pressure, and Eite scored their second try seven minutes after the break.
Gloucester put down a couple more chances before George Barton superbly skipped through for Gloucester's third try midway through the half, and Will Butler blasted in under the posts from distance three minutes later to secure a visiting bonus point.
But most of the 2,775 fans at the Mennaye had something to cheer when Harry Hocking was forced over from a driving maul with 11 minutes left.
The hosts kept up the pressure and Tomi Agbonbon went over after a tap penalty with four minutes to go to set up a grandstand finish.
But the Premiership side held out to go level on points with Exeter at the top of their pool - the Chiefs travel to Hartpury on Saturday with the chance to go clear at the top of the group again.
Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall:
"You've got to hand it to Gloucester, I thought they put us under a lot of pressure.
"You've seen in the Premiership their attacking brand, and they stressed us, but I thought we stuck in the fight... we stayed disciplined in defence first half.
"But it just shows the character we've got. We did have opportunities to maybe get a little draw in there, but I think the result most probably reflected the game."
Gloucester scrum and assistant forwards coach Trevor Woodman told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:
"We knew to stay in this competition we'd have to get five points down here.
"We knew they were going to make it incredibly tough, the challenge throughout the week was bringing together a group of players that hadn't necessarily trained together or the combinations hadn't played together.
"But the boys fronted up - first half was very sticky and our discipline cost us, we couldn't get out of our own half.
"But we sat in there at half-time and said, 'Let's cut out the stupid penalties, we'll get field position and once we get that we'll get tries.'"
Cornish Pirates: Price-Thomas; Relton, Georgiou, Elderkin, Trewin; Jenkins, Hiscocks; Young, Moody, Andrews, Bell, Cannon, King, Dorrell, Bokenham (capt).
Replacements: Hocking, French, Connolly, Coleman, Agbongbon, Jones, Houston, Yates.
Gloucester: Barton; Jones, Hillman-Cooper, Butler, Morris; Atkinson, Englefield; McArthur, Blake (capt), Petch, Clarke, Jordan, Eite, Gilbert, Tuisue.
Replacements: Knowles, A Benz-Salomon, J Benz-Salomon, Wrottesley, James, Ebanks, Adderly-Jones, Cotgreave.
Referee: Ben Wood
