Lo is a sight to behold for hosts

Photo: Dave Murgatroyd

OVER THE LINE: Oldham's Michael Ward powers through to register a try

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GARRY Lo was back after injury to spearhead Sheffield's 42-28 defeat of a plucky Oldham side that had the Eagles flapping in the second half.

Three late tries in quarter of an hour by Luke Adamson, George Tyson and Connor Williams gave Mark Aston's men a scare before lightning-fast Lo finally finished off the Roughyeds with his third try in the dying seconds.

Class will tell end in the end. And there's a lot of it on show when winger Lo and centre Menzie Yere form a lethal partnership from Papua New Guinea on Sheffield's left flank.

FLYER

On the opening day of the season Tuoyo Egodo did a great job on Yere at Bower Fold and, as a consequence, Lo hardly got a look-in as Roughyeds won 26-10 to get their Championship campaign off to a flyer.

This was payback time.

Yere had a no-holds-barred battle with Tyson, but the PNG veteran edged the contest in the second half when he set up two tries for Lo, who had already scored a sensational, length-of-the-field effort just before the interval.

Trailing 22-12, Oldham were attacking strongly. Scott Leatherbarrow kicked to the corner for Adam Clay, but Lo out-jumped him and set off up the touchline.

Tyson and Steve Nield did well to get their hands on him near half-way. They knocked him to the ground, but the tackle wasn't complete and while the Oldham pair were grounded Lo quickly regained his feet and raced away to score.

A runaway leader of the Championship tries table, he later completed a hat-trick to take his tally for the year to 25 - impressive by any standards and particularly so given that he is starring in a mid-table side.

Neither side excelled defensively. Thirteen tries and 70 points in total produced an action-packed game that kept fans interested, especially when Roughyeds pulled back from 38-12 down to 38-28 with a conversion to come, but the ease with which their respective charges leaked tries and points worried rival coaches Scott Naylor and Mark Aston.

Aston at least had the comfort of two more league points which virtually assure Eagles of Championship rugby again next year.

Naylor is left with a lot of work to do and plenty of points to win before he can enjoy such assurance, but he has, within his depleted and injury-ravaged squad, a group of players who will back him to the hilt and battle to the end.

That was again in evidence with the performance of a middle unit that conceded weight and size yet finished much the stronger and laid the foundation for a second-half grit and determination that enabled Roughyeds to outscore their opponents by 16 points to 14 after half-time.

DEFICIT

Had Leatherbarrow converted a try in the corner by teenager Williams in the 74th minute, and he was close enough to strike an upright off the touchline, the deficit would have been cut to eight points and Oldham's late surge would have gathered even more momentum.

All the forwards put in a shift. Of the starters, nobody did more than the hard-working Liam Bent in the second-row. He worked overtime to be a worthy replacement for the injured Danny Langtree and in many ways he succeeded.

Sadiq Adebiyi and Michael Ward made the most impact off the bench and Tyson and Sammy Gee worked hard at centre, and with considerable success with ball in hand. But the right flank had difficulty in handling Yere and Lo, while the left flank also looked shaky in conceding tries by Will Hope, Jack Owens and Jake Spedding.

Sheffield scored five of their eight tries from long range, although Yere's appeared to be on a forward pass and Spedding looked offside when he chased a long kick to score just after half-time.

Roughyeds went toe to toe with the home side for half an hour when they led 12-10, with tries by Adam Clay and Ward, both converted by David Hewitt.

They were at their weakest defensively in the 10 minutes either side of half-time when Eagles racked up 28 unanswered points, highlighted by tries from Hope, Owens, Lo (two) and Spedding.

Creditably, Roughyeds refused to capitulate. Leatherbarrow slipped Luke Adamson through a gap to start the comeback and Leatherbarrow goaled.

SCORED

As Naylor's men established the ascendancy, Tyson scored off a Leatherbarrow kick, the latter adding the goal.

Oldham were pressing relentlessly now and Williams finished well in the corner after strong approach play by Gee.

Everything pointed to more Oldham points in the last six minutes or so, but with one minute left Eagles got their hands on the ball and a flash of inspiration from Yere and Lo underpinned their class and finished the job.