Cornwall boss proud despite loss to leaders Oldham

Mike Abbott's side won their first game of the season at Midlands Hurricanes last week

Cornwall boss Mike Abbott says he is proud of his players despite a 42-0 loss at home to League One leaders Oldham.

Tries from Kieran Tyrer, Brad Gallagher and Mo Agoro saw the Roughyeds lead 12-0 at half-time, with Cornwall conceding five tries in a 15-minute period after the break.

Tyrer rounded off the win with a second try soon after Cornwall had seen Nathan Collins sent off for an alleged punch in a melee that also saw team-mate Nathan Cullen and Agoro sin-binned.

Oldham's tally of 42 points was the fewest they had scored in a league game this season as they stay top of the table after seven wins from seven games. Cornwall, who won their first game of the season 24-22 at Midlands Hurricanes last week, remain second from the bottom.

"I'm massively proud of them," Abbott said after the match.

"We've been saying over the last few games we wanted to kick on and improve performances and the big thing we spoke about this week was not going away when teams scored - just stay in it and don't let them get away.

"I thought the scoreline at half-time was probably what we deserved. Probably, if we'd been a little bit smarter on a few occasions we'd have posted points and it could have been closer. We didn't go away.

"I think in the second half, we don't start great and then there was a 15-minute window where I don't think we touched the ball that much and they got a real good roll on.

"They're a good outfit with some real good players and they did the boring stuff really well and we just struggled to deal with it."