Roughyeds on track for Rail Cup opener

OLDHAM RL Club start their 2013 campaign under new coach Scott Naylor with a Northern Rail Cup clash against North Wales Crusaders at Wrexham on Sunday, March 3.

The first home game is on Sunday, March 10 in the same competition against derby rivals Rochdale Hornets, who also come to Whitebank to kick off the Championship One season on Good Friday, March 29 (3pm).

With two derby clashes at Whitebank in the first month of the new season, Naylor will be looking for a flying start to his first head coach’s appointment.

New club Oxford are not competing in a restructured Northern Rail Cup in which the remaining eight Championship One clubs are split into two groups of four:

Northern: Oldham, Gateshead Thunder, Rochdale Hornets, North Wales Crusaders.

Southern: London Skolars, Gloucester, Hemel Stags, South Wales Scorpions.

Each team plays the others in its own group plus one from the other group, providing the first four games of the season, two at home, two away.

The cross-group games, on Sunday, March 24, are South Wales v Oldham, Gateshead v Gloucester, Hemel v North Wales, Rochdale v London.

The two teams finishing top of their respective groups progress to join the 14 Championship clubs in the knock-out stages later in the season.

Oxford, coached by former Oldham boss Tony Benson, will be at Whitebank in the second home league game on Sunday, April 28 while fellow newcomers Hemel Stags and Gloucester will be here respectively on Sundays, June 23 and August 11.

The final league game of the regular season at Rochdale will be on Thursday, August 15 (7.30pm) and televised live by Premier Sports.

Between the beginning of March and mid-August there are five blank weekends, but the schedules released so far by the Rugby Football League do not include dates for the knock-out stages of the Northern Rail Cup (other than the final on Sunday, July 21) or the Carnegie Challenge Cup rounds.




Oldham RL fixtures 2013

Northern Rail Cup

MARCH
3 North Wales Crusaders (A, 2:30pm)

10 Rochdale Hornets (H)

17 Gateshead Thunder (H)

24 South Wales Scorpions (A, 2pm)

Championship One

29 Rochdale Hornets (H)

APRIL
14 Gloucestershire All Golds (A)

28 Oxford (H)

MAY
12 Hemel Stags (A)

26 Gateshead Thunder (H)

JUNE
2 London Skolars (H)

9 North Wales Crusaders (A, 2:30pm)

16 South Wales Scorpions (A)

23 Hemel Stags (H)

30 Gateshead Thunder (A)

JULY
7 Oxford (A)

14 South Wales Scorpions (H)

28 North Wales Crusaders (H)

AUGUST
4 London Skolars (A)

11 Gloucestershire All Golds (H)

15 Rochdale Hornets (A, 7:30pm, Premier Sports TV).

ALL KICK-OFFS 3PM UNLESS STATED