Rhys Jones's six penalties were not quite enough to give Pirates the win

Cornish Pirates nearly caused a huge upset in National One as they narrowly lost to league leaders Leeds 25-23.

Kearnan Myall gave the visitors a second-minute lead with a try and Richard Welding made it 12-0.

Pirates fly-half Rhys Jones kicked four penalties, but a converted Tom Biggs try made it 22-12 at the break.

Jones kicked two more penalties and Darren Dawidiuk scored an unconverted try, but Alberto Di Bernando's penalty saw Leeds edge home.

Despite coming so near to beating the league's top side, Pirates head coach Mark Hewitt says his side should have won.

"Close is not good enough. We started off poorly, gave them a 12-point start and two poor restarts and we were chasing the game," he told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"But credit to the boys, we never panicked, there was a good mental edge about us and we just hung on in there.

"We took our opportunities and we did make it quite a close score," he said.

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