Cornish Pirates snatched a narrow away victory to move up to third in the table.

Ahead of the weekend's game, both the Pirates and Hartpury were in fourth and sixth place respectively.

It was a topsy turvy old game where three of their personnel spent second half minutes in the sin bin.

The opening period of the game started brightly for Hartpury when in just the second minute full-back George Barton’s strong run saw him dent the Pirates’ defence and make it to the line for a try.

It was not long before the Cornish Pirates also opened their account, when fly-half Bruce Houston stepped forward, assessed the wind, and decided to kick for the posts for 5-3.

Further points would follow for the Pirates when, following solid approach play by prop Lefty Zigiriadis, lock Steele Barker and wing Matt McNab, a resulting penalty award saw Houston this time opt for the corner, from where hooker Harry Hocking found his man at an attacking line-out opportunity and then, following a drive to the whitewash, was identified as the scorer of an unconverted try (5-8).

Hartpury would lose their captain Crane to the sin bin, but a Bazalgette penalty would level matters (8-8).

Falmouth Packet:

Soon after the restart, the Pirates produced some excellent play involving backs and forwards, with their continuity and phase play ending with skipper John Stevens scoring a try at the posts to which Houston this time added the extras (8-15).

But the first half scoring didn’t stop there, as five minutes before halftime an interception by wing Matt McNab saw him go clear and score a converted try against his former team (8-22).

Into the second period, the Pirates got off anything but a sought-after start.

The penalty-count suddenly went against them, and after awarded a penalty try Hartpury looked to take advantage.

They were also aided in considering that within the space of 11 minutes the Pirates were shown three yellow cards - Will Britton, Hugh Bokenham and Matt Johnson.

This all created considerable pressure on the depleted Pirates.

Into the last quarter, the Pirates were still holding on to their 22-15 lead, but that would soon change.

From a lineout drive, Hartpury’s replacement hooker Ethan Hunt broke off and scored a converted try at the posts, to again draw level (22-22), and a superb penalty strike by Bazalgette, from two metres inside his own half, then put Hartpury ahead (25-22).

Falmouth Packet: Three Pirates were sin binned in the second-half

Having drawn and lost their last two outings, the Cornish Pirates were desperately keen to avoid going three games without a win, and to their considerable credit they did.

Fresh off the bench, replacement fly-half Tom Pittman firstly landed a penalty (to make it 25-25), and although he narrowly missed an attempted long-range kick at goal, it was an unconverted try scored by replacement prop Jacob Morris that in the very last seconds proved all important.

Refusing to bow, had delivered the Pirates the victory (25-30), a bonus point, plus to boot they moved back up to third in the table.

Speaking after the final whistle, Cornish Pirates’ joint head coach Gavin Cattle said: “Some people might say it was a get of jail free card, but I thought that in the first half we showed enough dominance even though we didn’t convert that fully on the scoreboard".