Cornish Pirates look to add more depth to squad

Cornish Pirates coach Joe Walsh says the club is continuing their recruitment drive in preparation for the new Champ season.

The club has already agreed terms with 14 of their out-of-contract players while agreeing permanent deals for on-loan forward Tomiwa Agbonbon and Gloucester's Hugh Bokenham.

Seventh-placed Pirates face a must-win final game of the season on Saturday when they travel to sixth-placed Hartpury - should they fail to win they will miss out on the play-offs.

Having secured what joint-head coach Gavin Cattle described as "the spine of the team", Walsh says the next challenge is to add more depth to the squad:

"The Champ can be, and is, a very rigorous league," he told BBC Radio Cornwall.

"You pick up a lot of knocks, you pick up a lot of short to medium-term injuries that if they're out of your training squad and playing squad for three to four weeks, for a group the size of ours, that can be a real detriment and a real difficulty.

"We've definitely signed some real quality - and hopefully some more to come - and then also over the next two months we've got to start making positive steps in terms of filling that squad up with a bit more volume.

"That obviously safeguards against injury, but also gives us a better training stimulus and a better environment for the boys to progress in week to week.

"But I'm really impressed with what the club have done so far off field and the direction they're moving in and all the hard work that's going on from the board, management - they've been working tirelessly on it you can see the results of it now with those signings."