CARRY on like this and supporters of the Pirates could well be suffering from bouts of motion sickness come the New Year such is the up and down nature of the Cornish club right now.

On a high following their last-gasp victory at Moseley the week previous, Chris Stirling's side were brought back down to earth with a bang yesterday as visiting Doncaster Knights headed home with some much needed bounty following their 12-10 victory at the Recreation Ground.

In a contest which is unlikely to live long in the memories of those in attendance, it was the travelling Yorkshiremen who ultimately prevailed thanks to second-half tries from Andy Wright and Steven Lawrie, the latter of which was converted by their fly-half Ali Warnock.

Donny's determined on-field efforts just about gave them the nod in a closely fought encounter, one which the ringside judges would probably have awarded them on a narrow points decision.

That said, the Pirates will today wake up kicking themselves after they failed to land a knockout blow of their own in the final minutes of the Camborne bout. Having hauled themselves back into contention with a converted Rhodri McAtee try and a penalty from Rob Cook, they twice spurned decent scoring opportunities to win the contest late on.

Those missed chances meant that instead of moving into the Championship's top four, the Pirates have instead slipped to sixth in the standings, much to the disappointment of High Performance Manager Stirling.

"I knew the game would be a war of attrition," said Stirling at the final whistle. "I knew it would be a physical, brutal battle – and it was. The result wasn't what I expected, but the game itself was.

"Doncaster are a quality side and in no way are they a side who should be second bottom in the table. All credit to them for their win, they came here and did what they had to do and they did it well. They stopped us from playing for long spells.

"Defensively there was no space for us to attack in to. We pushed some wide spaces that weren't there, but we were lucky that we were able to recycle the ball and get away it.

"In the end, I think 12-10 is a pretty fair reflection of the game, but it could have gone either way. As I said, I'm disappointed with the result and the fact that we didn't quite get enough authority to play the style of rugby we wanted to play."

From the outset, Doncaster quickly set out their game plan – much of which was based around causing chaos at the breakdown area.

The robust, in-your-face approach from the visitors caused real problems throughout and it was not until the last quarter that the Pirates finally looked like a decent attacking threat.

Early doors, though, it was Doncaster who were given the first scoring chance of the game. Just two minutes had been played when home flanker Sam Betty was penalised for not rolling away at a ruck. However, Warnock was unable to punish Betty's indiscretion, screwing his penalty chance from in front of the posts wide of the mark.

That was the only real chance of an opening quarter which was based largely around the battle for supremacy up front. Neither side were willing to give an inch – a point underlined when Donny centre Bevon Armitage floored Pirates winger James Moore with a crude high tackle.

Although Armitage survived the wrath of referee Roy Maybank, home prop Paul Andrew did not follow a similar path as he was sin-binned on 24 minutes for a needless shoulder charge. Despite the man advantage, however, Donny were unable to find a way through the home defences as the half concluded with the scoreboard untouched.

On the resumption, the visitors were again first out of the traps. Just 40 seconds has been played when, following a powerful forward charge, the ball was worked back to Warnock, whose sublime cross-field kick saw right winger Andy Wright out jump Moore to touchdown in the right corner.

In response the Pirates countered with a penalty from full-back Rob Cook on 57 minutes, before Doncaster stretched their lead on the hour mark when skipper Steven Lawrie picked a lovely line to run onto a pop pass from Armitage and score under the posts. Warnock obliged with the extras for a 12-3 lead.

With the crowd have been starved of points in the opening half, all of a sudden their was an avalanche of them as the Pirates hauled themselves back into contention with their first try. Quick ball enabled Mark Ireland and Nick Jackson to combine in midfield, the latter feeding the ball to Welsh winger Rhodri McAtee, who sped along the left flank to dot down. Cook banged over the tough touchline conversion to leave just two points in it.

Sensing another possible late success, the Pirates threw caution to the wind late on. However, Cook failed with a penalty chance, whilst Jonny Bentley's last-gasp drop-goal also missed its intended target.

It was a disappointing conclusion for the home side, who must now ready themselves for Friday's Championship trip to Coventry.