By Gareth Davies

HEAD coach Mike Abbott was ‘massively proud’ of his patched-up Cornwall RLFC side after they were defeated 42-0 by table-topping Oldham at the Memorial Ground on Sunday.

Missing a whole host of key personnel through injury, suspension and unavailability, the Choughs only trailed 12-0 after 52 minutes.

Down two interchanges at this point with Courage Mkuhlani (dislocated shoulder) and Kyle Marvin (knee) both injured, Oldham took control to keep their perfect record in Betfred League One very much intact. 

“I’m massively proud,” Abbott told cornwallrlfc.co.uk. “We have been saying in the last few weeks that we wanted to kick on and improve performances. And in the build-up this week, we spoke about not going away, so when teams score, we don’t let them get away.

“At half-time, I thought the scoreline was what we deserved because if we had been a bit smarter on a couple of occasions we would have posted points, but we never went away. 

“In the second half, we didn’t start great and for a 15-minute window we didn’t touch the ball that much and Oldham got a good roll on. 

“(Oldham) are a good outfit, they did the boring stuff really well and we struggled to cope with that.”

With star turns such as Tom Ashton, Harry Aaronson, Morgan Punchard, Kaine Dimech and Matt Ross on the sidelines, Abbott was forced into a late change when his leading try scorer in 2024 Cameron Brown broke down in the warm-up with a groin problem.

This prompted further tactical and personnel adjustments and Abbott felt that was a telling factor in his side not troubling the scorers. 

He added: “Our spine was ripped apart with no Cam Brown and Adam (Rusling) having to go to full-back. (Nathan) Conroy then has to jump into the halves with Bailey (Black) and it disjointed us.

“That was why we are little bit clunky in the first half and Cam Brown has been on fire recently. Players like that make a real difference in games like this, when you have momentum and the ball.

“I will big up the boys, though, because of how hard they worked, but that 15-minute window did infuriate me.”

Despite the Roughyeds coasting to victory as time ticked down, the game was marred by an unsavoury incident in which home forward Nathan Cullen was shoved over the advertising boards by Logan Astley and Adam Lawton after a huge melee broke out.

It started with a disagreement between Mo Agoro and Cornwall’s George Mitchell before both teams ran in.

To the amazement of the home crowd, rookie referee Denton Arnold sent Cullen to the sin-bin and Luke Collins for an early bath. Agoro, who had started the confrontation, was also sent for a 10-minute sabbatical.

Curiously, though, Cornwall were awarded the penalty for punching, but no Oldham player was shown a card for that particular offence.

Abbott meanwhile, admitted that he would have to review the match footage before passing judgement on the incident.

“All I saw was Nathan Cullen’s legs go over the barrier,” he revealed. “I know the video is shot from the other side (to where the incident happened) so we will get a good shot of it.

“Until I see it, I can’t comment, but we did stump a red card in all of that.

“There were a couple of decisions that baffled me today and when we are under the pump in that 15-minute spell. Coby Nichol is tracking back and he’s pulled to the floor right in front of the linesman.

“Little decisions like that change momentum and there were certain things that baffled me.”