Naylor’s blasts ‘soft’ defence

A BITTERLY disappointed Scott Naylor labelled some of his side’s defensive work in a heavy 48-12 opening-day defeat by North Wales Crusaders as “totally unacceptable”.

Roughyeds conceded a staggering 30 points in 11 minutes either side of half-time — two converted tries in the four minutes before the break and three more in the seven minutes immediately afterwards.

“For the first half hour there was nothing between the teams, but then we totally disregarded everything we had been working on all week,” said the shell-shocked Oldham coach.

“We were soft in defence and I’m really disappointed about that. I can accept the opposition scoring a great team try, but when they score because they merely run over or through a defender and not much effort is shown in the tackle that is hard to take.

“Some of the lads put in a big effort and gave me everything, but I can’t say that about the entire 17 and that is totally unacceptable.

“There were some positives, but not many.

“We spoke at half-time, when we trailed 18-8, about how we should start the second half and we went out and did exactly the opposite.

“Within 10 minutes the game had slipped away from us. It was a crying shame.

“I don’t think we were as far behind Crusaders as the score would indicate, but having said that I am so disappointed at the manner in which we lost. It’s not altogether the losing that hurts; it’s the way we lost.”

Crusaders boss Clive Griffiths said: “The big plus to me was our defence. We knew Palfrey and Dallimore would be dangerous with their kicking games. We set out to put pressure on them and shut them down, and I think we succeeded.

“We are a much more experienced side than we were last year, but we won’t get carried away.

“Oldham will come strong again. It was our day, but we know we can look forward over the season to some hard battles with them.”