Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle feels his side should not have had just four days' rest before their Champ Rugby trip to Coventry.
Cornish Pirates joint-head coach Gavin Cattle feels his side should not have had just four days' rest before their Champ Rugby trip to Coventry.
The Pirates were beaten 41-26 at Butts Park Arena on New Year's Day, having lost 41-14 at home to runaway leader leaders Ealing on 27 December.
The defeat was eighth-placed Pirates' fifth successive loss.
"We can look at the score in isolation, but we've played top of the league in a physical game at home on Saturday and been asked to turn that around by Thursday physically - with a small squad, that's a tough challenge," Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall.
"I don't agree with the short turnaround, four days, I think it's too close. We're talking about player welfare, there's something for a discussion for another time.
"But that's not an excuse, I'm chuffed with the way we responded physically in that game but we need more."
Pirates were 15-0 down after 13 minutes before two tries in quick succession from Dan Hiscocks and Josh King quickly helped reduced their deficit to three points.
The Cornish side had Rory Suttor sin-binned after half-an-hour and Coventry took advantage of the extra man as Aristot Benz-Salomon and Senitiki Nayalo went over to make it 27-12.
Buster Rice was yellow-carded on the stroke of half-time, meaning Cattle's side began the second half with 14 men, although they held their opponents at bay and cut the gap thanks to a 51st-minute Matty Ward try.
Allan Ferrie went over for the hosts six minutes later before Rice's 65th-minute try got Pirates back within eight points at 34-26.
With three minutes to go, Pirates piled on the pressure under the Coventry posts only to lose the ball as they pushed for a fifth try before seeing Ewan Baker break away in the final seconds to wrap up the win for the hosts.
"I just want to credit the boys for that fight," added Cattle.
"I thought that was a marked improvement over the last two weeks - that runaway try at the end most probably masked the score a little bit.
"We had opportunities to score a couple more, a dropped ball over the line, and if we'd got that try under the sticks there you've got a bit of a frantic finish which we were hoping for.
"But you have to give Coventry credit, they started well, started fast.
"We're in a results business, I get it, but when you look at the performance there, that's something we can hang our hat on.
"Whereas previous weeks I don't feel we've had it - [but] I feel our collision went up both sides of the ball and that looked more like a Pirates side."
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