OUTSTANDING is he only adjective to give for the Cornish Pirates' display on Sunday as they crushed the Bedford Blues 65-14.

Having been so poor in their previous home match against Nottingham two weeks earlier, the Mennaye was positively rocking this time as the hosts blew their counterparts away.

With the memories of having their previous win over the Blues in the British & Irish Cup scrubbed off them earlier this season, the Pirates were emphatic as they made sure there was only one victor.

A try scoring bonus point was secured before half time and by the end of the 80 minutes, nine had been chalked up by the hosts.

It was a brilliant team performance by the Pirates with the backs linking up well and the forwards doing an impersonation of a brick wall in defence.

Bedford's day started as awfully as it ended with ex-Pirate Ben Gulliver fumbling his catch from the kick-off.

This created immediate pressure in the Blues 22 which resulted in the ball staying in the visitor's half for the first ten minutes.

Eventually the pressure told as after claiming Darryl Veenendaal's defensive hack out, Max Bodilly found himself on the end of a move which saw the Pirates moving the ball from wing-to-wing to go over the whitewash.

Kieran Hallett added the conversion and a penalty minutes later before the Pirates made it 17-0 before the 20th minute. 

From a scrum on the Blues' 5m line, Matt Bolwell gave the ball to Tom Kessell, allowing the man making his 100th appearance for the team to score.

Some time was finally spent in the Pirates half, but Bedford could not do anything with it and when the hosts got back over the halfway line, Kieran Goss raced in on the right wing for a try, which Hallett converted.

Another penalty got added to the score, as did a try from Alex Dancer before half time when after Goss' initial break into the blues' 22, the Pirates kept composed against a scramble defence to create the gap for the inside centre.

The sides went in at the break with the scoreboard reading 34-0 and the Pirates got the first points after the interval.

Pressure had been building near the Pirates' goal line, but then a moment of brilliance by Goss saw him snatch Veenendaal's pass and motor across the length of the field to score his second.

Indiscipline had started creeping into the Pirates' game after the break which resulted in substitute hooker Rob Elloway being sin-binned as referee Simon Harding became fed up with the fouling.

With a man advantage, the Blues made use of this factor to send Oliver Dodge over the try line with Jake Sharp converting.

No drop in intensity was made by the Pirates though as they kept sending back any attacks from their opponents.

Craig Holland had been superb on the left wing all game, making several breaks, beating off tackles and getting stuck in defensively too.

His awesomeness was rewarded just after the hour when he was given the ball with space in front of him and despite nearly mucking it up, dotted down for five points which Hallett boosted up to seven.

A driving maul from 5m out saw 40-year-old Blues captain Paul Tupai touch down for a try, but the last ten minutes saw the Pirates score three more.

Rheon James went over with his first possession after coming on in place of Tom Riley before another substitute, Stuart Townsend, dived in to the try zone after Joe Atkinson broke through the defence.

Hallett converted both of these but could not add the extra two points from Laurence May's try in the 78th minute, which he got after Dancer stole the ball near the halfway line before the pirates moved it to the left wing.

It did not take any of the shine off the performance though with the Pirates jumping from 11th in the table to eighth ahead of Friday night's trip to Cross Keys in the B&I Cup.

PIRATES: 15 Bodilly, 14 Goss (May, 67), 13 Riley (James, 67), 12 Dancer, 11 Holland, 10 Hallett, 9 Kessell (Townsend, 62); 1 P Andrew (J Andrew, 60), 2 Channon (Elloway, 50), 3 Paver, 4 Carrick Smith (Graulich, 67), 5 Barry (Grauchlich - blood, 60-62), 6 Morgan (c), 7 Atkinson, 8 Bolwell (Conlon, 62).

TRIES: Bodilly (10), Kessell (19), Goss (24, 48), Dancer (36), Holland (61), James (70), Townsend (72), May (78).

CONS: Hallett 7/9.

PENS: Hallett 2.

SIN-BIN: Elloway (54-64).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Craig Holland.