CALDY lost 28-21 in a seven try thriller at Cornish Pirates and were unlucky not to take a rare draw back to Wirral after a brilliant second half display.

It was the Wirral side who started the better of the teams scoring the opening try after 10 minutes and with great team play as Cornish Pirates were sold a dummy which opened up the space allowing Ezra Hinchcliffe to score under the posts.

Pirates got back into the game seven minutes later through captain John Stevens when he powered through to score and it started a dominant period for the South West side.

At the midway point of the first half Pirates were awarded a penalty try after Caldy were unable to stop the maul legally with Tom Sanders sent to the sin bin.

A third Pirates' try came just five minutes later, taking advantage of the extra man Harry Bazalgete found the gap in the middle of the defence and slotted the ball through to Robin Wedlake who finished it off well.

Dan Bibby thought he had brought Caldy back into the game by going over but the officials saw a forward pass in the build up.

Caldy came out firing in the second half and took the game to the hosts and were rewarded after eight minutes through a try from Nyle Davidson after the forward was able to dodge a number of tackles to go over and make an exciting last half hour of the game.

Despite a number of chances Caldy were unable to go over the line to make the game level and were made to pay when Olly Adkins who scored after a good passing move allowed him the space to go over and secure the bonus point.

Caldy continued to be the dominant side and they managed to keep creating chances but the Pirates backline was able to withstand the pressure.

Caldy made it a nervous final five minutes after Callum Ridgeway scored, the flanker powered through the defence to go over.

A yellow card for the Pirate's Rory Parata reduced them to 14 men for the final few minutes although Caldy couldn’t make the extra man count.

Caldy have three games remaining, the first of which is away at league leaders Ealing Trailfinders with the Wirral team looking to do the double over the London side.