The Cornish Pirates can confirm that scrum-half Gavin Cattle has been appointed as Player/Coach on a two year contract from June.

Aged 33, the inspirational captain of the club first played for the Pirates back in 2004. He skippered the team on a number of occasions in 2005-06, and in 2007 led the Pirates to victory against Exeter Chiefs at Twickenham, when the EDF Energy National Trophy was won.

After two seasons with Llanelli, Gavin returned to the Pirates for the start of the 2009-10 season and has been club captain ever since. Further highlights have included wearing the captain's armband when the Pirates emerged as first ever winners of the British & Irish Cup in 2010 – beat Munster 23-14 in the final played at Camborne - and in the two seasons that followed, again under his helm, he helped the Pirates reach the twin-legged finals of the RFU Championship.

Honours in general, besides his regular selection in Rugby Times and The Rugby Paper 'Dream' XVs,  include being nominated as an Olympic torchbearer, and also skippering the RFU Championship side that played the Maori All Blacks in November, 2012. He has also during this season passed the 200 games milestone for the Pirates.

Besides news of Gavin's appointment, the Pirates can also confirm that a further four players, in addition to the 14 names previously announced, have put pen to paper on new contracts.  The players concerned are Canada's captain Aaron Carpenter (No. 8/hooker), Tom Duncan (back-row), Rheon James (centre) and Kyle Moyle (wing/full-back/fly-half). As per Gavin, all are two year contracts.

Commenting with reference to Gavin's appointment, Director of Rugby Ian Davies said: “Gavin came through as the strongest candidate and having had the opportunity to get him coaching during his enforced injury absence it is already evident he will improve our back play. The players respond well to him and as he remains a player within the squad he will have empathy with their training requirements.”