MISTAKES on the ball proved costly for the Cornish Pirates on Sunday as they fell to a 28-10 loss at home to Rotherham in the Greene King IPA Championship.

Curtis Wilson, Jack Preece and Alex Rieder all went over for the Yorkshire side against the hosts who were sloppy throughout the match.

Referee Greg McDonald also found plenty of law breaches to penalise the Pirates, giving visiting fly-half James McKinney three penalties to put on the scoreboard.

There was only a brief 15 minute spell early in the second half where the hosts looked on top of the game with scrum-half Tom Kessell grabbing a try which added to Kieran Hallett's early penalty.

An early indication of what was to come happened after just two minutes when Hallett spilled a high up and under in front of his team’s posts, allowing McKinney a simple chance to open the scoring.

The Irishman doubled the tally in the eighth minute before the Pirates got on the scoreboard when Hallett kicked home an easy penalty from just ten metres out.

Scrappy play not long after the restart from the hosts gifted Rotherham a chance which saw them bag their first try.

Hallett had a kick charged down in his own 22 by McKinney and then Craig Holland failed to find touch with his attempted clearance, with the Titans moving the ball out to Wilson on an overlap to dive over.

The conversion from near the right touchline hit the post and bounced out, but McKinney made no mistake at the next attempt when a solid driving maul starting about 15m out saw Rotherham saunter over the whitewash with Preece dotting down.

At this stage, the only thing which was working for the Pirates was their scrum as they bullied the opposition from this set piece.

Everything else was going awry for them with Rotherham beating them in the contact area and plenty of knock-ons giving possession to the Yorkshiremen.

On the stroke of half time, another error saw the Pirates give away a penalty for going in at the side and McKinney kicked the resulting penalty to make the score 21-3.

After the break, some in roads where finally made by the Pirates into Rotherham territory with full-back Max Bodilly making excellent breaks into the away half as did replacement Alex Dancer, who made a positive impact from the bench.

This pressure saw the hosts get over the try line in the 50th minute when after a good catch-and-drive, Kessell spotted a gaping hole in the defence and ran in from 20m out, with Laurence May adding the conversion.

Another try at this point would make a comeback very possible for the Pirates and it nearly came as 6ft6 lock Darren Barry nearly stretched out far enough to dot the ball down, only for a defender to punch it out of his mitts before he could ground it.

This move proved to be the end of the dominant spell from the hosts and Rotherham managed to control the rest of their game in their favour, spending most of it in home territory.

Help was given to them by the Pirates who continued to suffer from knock-ons and ill-discipline, with their last penalty setting up the kick to touch which allowed Rotherham to drive their maul over again with Alex Rieder getting the try.

All Pirates eyes turn to Cornwall Council’s planning committee on Thursday with the side not in action again until March 20 when they travel to Bedford.

PIRATES: 15 Bodilly, 14 Evans (Pope 63), 13 Hendrickson, 12 James (Dancer 45), 11 Holland, 10 Hallett (May 49), 9 Kessell; 1 P Andrew (Ford-Robinson 68), 2 Channon (Innard 13), 3 Ford-Robinson (Paver 63), 4 Carrick Smith (Bolwell 45), 5 Barry, 6 Morgan (c, Parker blood 21-28), 7 Atkinson, 8 McGlone (Parker 68).

TRY: Kessell (50).

CON: May.

PEN: Hallett (19).

ROTHERHAM: 15 Scanlon, 14 Keating, 13 Gill, 12 Davies, 11 Wilson, 10 McKinney, 9 White; 1 Hislop (Williams 68), 2 Cruse (c, Thiede 59), 3 Tampin (Sowrey 59), 4 Maddison, 5 Robinson (Holmes 54), 6 Rieder, 7 Preece (Birch 67), 8 Morris.

UNUSED REPS: Barrett, Cooke.

TRIES: Wilson (11), Preece (16), Rieder (80).

CONS: McKinney 2/3.

PENS: McKinney (2, 8, 40).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: James McKinney.