Pirates players and fans celebrate after their British & Irish Cup win

Cornish Pirates captain Gavin Cattle paid tribute to the club's supporters following Sunday's British & Irish Cup triumph against Munster A.

The Pirates beat their Irish opponents by 23-14 in Camborne to win the inaugural competition.

Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall: "I just can't thank the fans enough and this is a great place to play.

"We're not standing still, we're going forwards so just keep supporting us as it's only going to get better."

Cattle's comments were echoed by the Pirates number eight and top try scorer, Blair Cowan.

New Zealander Cowan has become a firm favourite amongst supporters, 4,240 of whom were at the Camborne Rec on Sunday helping cheer their team to victory.

"The support's awesome," said Cowan. "I'm delighted with the turnout and I just can't describe how much the support means to us."

Cowan went on to cite the home side's watertight defence as being the most important factor in Sunday's Cup win.

"We worked massively on the defence all week prior to the game," he said.

"We knew Munster could attack and we knew the areas of attack where they'd be strong.

"So we put emphasis on shutting that down and it was easy once you got on top of them.

Such was the strength of the Pirates' defensive effort, Munster were only able to cross their hosts line once.

Danny Barnes' late consolation try just before the final whistle, came too late to stop the Cornish side from claiming a famous win.

"It's absolutely massive," said Cowan. "Especially to come up against a team like Munster and to come out with a result like that."

The win is the second time the Pirates have claimed major silverware in recent years, adding to their 2007 National Trophy victory over Exeter Chiefs.

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