Paul Hull admitted his players had been affected by nerves after they struggled to a 19-12 win over Cornish Pirates in their promotion play-off opener last night.

Hull's Championship table-toppers looked nervous throughout their narrow victory at the Memorial Stadium, which came thanks to 14 points from Adrian Jarvis and a first-half Iain Grieve try.

And the Bristol head coach admitted he was relieved to have won the opening match of their Pool A campaign following last weekend's surprise league defeat at Moseley and a higher-profile build-up to the game.

"The stakes are high now and people keep talking about games being cup finals," said Hull.

"This is where it all starts and that media hype might have got to everyone this week – but it's out of the way now. We've got this win under our belts and we can move on.

"It felt like the first game of the season. The players seemed nervous and there wasn't that much energy at times.

"But there had been such big hype about this game, the first game of the play-offs, and there has been big hype leading up to this for the last eight months."

Bristol, who finished 36 points ahead of Pirates in the table, did not exhibit such superiority last night and were relieved when Jarvis slotted an injury-time penalty to increase the advantage to seven points.

Until that point, the game had been in the balance, with the Cornish side producing a display full of grit and determination.

"What I saw out there was a nervous team again," said Hull. "There were individual errors from certain players you wouldn't normally expect it from.

"But we lost last week and we bounced back with a tough fixture, which has probably been our biggest game of the season.

"There are some disappointed players in the changing room, but when you analyse it, it was the first game of a new period in the season and we've been looking forward to this for eight months.

"Also, don't take anything away from Pirates – they came here and they played. They defended really well and the breakdown was very strongly contested."

Bristol now head to Bedford – where they won 6-5 in September – next Saturday. And Hull knows his players must step up their performance from last night's error-strewn effort.

"This is pressure rugby now and I'm happy that we won – we could have lost," said Hull.

"I know people will be hoping we win by big scores, but let's be honest, a win is a win at this stage and that is the main thing.

"We've got one win out of one but you always have to improve. We're away from home next, so that naturally dictates we'll have to improve our performance."