Cornish Pirates

CORNISH Pirates coach Jim McKay could not hide his disappointment as he watched his side go down to their first defeat of the season at Bedford Blues.

Despite winger Richard Welding taking his try tally to ten for the season, there were few bright spots on a tough afternoon for the visitors from the Duchy.

The biggest concern will no doubt be the severity of Matt Evans' knee injury. The South African forward was forced off after 19 minutes at Goldington Road and the initial thoughts are not good.

McKay said afterwards: "The initial prognosis doesn't look good for Matt, but he'll checked out on Monday and we'll go from there."

The loss of Evans was the last thing McKay needs at this time, his back-row options are wearing thin following injuries to Iva Motusaga, Lodewyk Hattingh, Sam Betty and Tim Cowley.

He remains hopeful that both Betty and Cowley could be fit for this weekend's visit of Nottingham - a game the Australian is already setting his sights on following this reverse at Goldington Road .

"We're very disappointed with today," said McKay. "I'm hurting and so are all the boys. Full credit to Bedford for the way they played, but there were things we set out to do today which we didn't execute.