The Cornish Pirates are still looking for their first Championship point of the 2014-15 season after a 30-19 defeat to London Scottish at Mennaye Field.
The Penzance club at least met their stated goal of building on last week's opening day defeat to Yorkshire Carnegie. They gave as good as they got for 70 minutes against another of the division's fancied teams this season.
Back Kyle Moyle's first half try and three penalties from Kieran Hallett ensured Pirates were just a point behind at half-time against Scottish as visiting skipper Mark Bright scored twice in the first 40 minutes.
However, Pirates were only able to add a try from Tom Kessell in the second half, while former Redruth forward Bright capped a fantastic individual performance by scoring his third – for his second hat-trick in two games – and set up the fourth try for his side's bonus point.
The game started well for Pirates and that yielded an early penalty, which Hallett slotted between the posts to establish a three-point lead with just four minutes on the clock.
Pirates kept possession in the Scottish half until visiting forward PJ Gidlow suffered a heavy blow, requiring lengthy treatment. The former Redruth centre left the field on a stretcher and was replaced by Ernst Claassens.
Hallett soon doubled Pirates' advantage with another penalty shortly after play resumed before Exiles full-back Peter Lydon took his chance to get his side off the mark with a routine penalty of his own.
Lydon cost Scottish three points moments later by infringing in front of his own posts, allowing Hallett to score his third penalty, and earned a yellow card for himself in the process for not rolling away.
Despite being a man down, Scottish scored the first try of the game through Bright. The England Sevens star touched down off the back of a maul after his side had kicked a penalty to the corner.
The missed conversion from fly-half Lee Millar at least ensured Pirates retained a one-point lead going into the final ten minutes of the first half.
Wing Moyle turned that into a six-point advantage when he finished a smart break from Tom Riley. The Welsh centre showed great composure after piercing the Scottish defence in midfield, demonstrating good awareness to bend his run towards the seemingly distant support runners to his right.
Then a perfectly timed pass gave Moyle a simple finish near the right corner for an unconverted score.
However, momentum shifted once more before the half-time whistle. Prop Paul Andrew was shown a yellow card for a scrum infringement inside his own 22, and that gave the visitors the impetus required to get over Pirates' try line once again through rampaging No.8 Bright.
Lydon appeared to miss the conversion but the crowd were informed – after the half-time break – that his kick was indeed successful, despite the initial signals from the assistant referees, and Scottish took a one-point lead into the second half.
It looked for a long time as though that would turn out to be the decisive moment of the game as neither side could advance the scoreboard in the first 30 minutes of the second half.
In the end, it was Bright who proved to be the match winner. He scored his hat-trick try in the 70th minute before setting up wing Miles Mantella with a superb one-handed pass – converted by Lydon – to secure the four-try bonus point.
Pirates rallied late on, just as they did against Yorkshire, with last season's top try-scorer Kessell bursting through to score an unconverted touchdown in the final moments, but it was not enough to give his side their first league points of the season.
