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Cornwall head coach Neil Kelly revealed that despite losing 52-16 at Doncaster on Saturday, his side made ‘a significant move forward’ in South Yorkshire.

For long spells of the 80 minutes at a sun-drenched Eco-Power Stadium, the Choughs more than matched a Doncaster side who were beaten Betfred League 1 play-off finalists last week.

After 20 minutes, Cornwall trailed just 10-6 thanks to a try from hooker Jake Lloyd and a Kyle Johns goal. Doncaster found another gear to reach 28 points at the mid-way point but Cornwall scored the try of the game through Joe Burton and once again, Johns converted.

Doncaster put themselves well on the way to victory with a two-try burst straight after the interval but Cornwall battled on manfully and scored the final try of the match when Jayden Myers touched down out wide. 

“I told the team in my summing up that this is a significant move forward for us,” Kelly told cornwallrlfc.co.uk post match. “We have matched Doncaster in 75 to 80 per cent of the game but we are paying a big price for individual errors.

“Perhaps that is the inexperienced nature of my squad but overall I must pay credit to Toby Brannan, Jack Ray and Anthony Mullally who have played just about 80 minutes of the game.

“They play the game where it gets tough and I think in that area we have come out on top. They won their individual battles so it would be wrong for me not to mention that.

“Going forward, I think my chat to the players will be one of fine margins or finer margins opposed to one certain area of our game was wrong. I feel that 80 per cent of what we did today was more than good enough for this level of rugby league and for us to be competitive.

“That said, we can’t keep paying a big price for individual errors in individual situations.

“I’m not a silly coach but at this stage, I don’t think it’s relevant or perhaps necessary to be looking at games from a win or lose situation. I am looking at performances and on today’s performance, as I said before, we got about 80 per cent right.”

Kelly added: “Rugby league is a game of resilience and in a lot of areas we were resilient. It is just those mistakes, especially in defence, that has almost betrayed the efforts of our team. It is up to those individuals to look at themselves and want to be better in certain situations.

“Hopefully in the weeks and months to come as we progress and get better, then we will be looking at ever increasing finer margins when analysing our performances.”