Roughyeds romp to victory

CONSTANT PRESSURE: Mo Agoro (left) runs at the All Golds back line.

All Golds 0, Oldham 36

THE score says it all: Oldham WERE 36 points better than the All Golds.

The game carried the same classy trademark as the team’s best of the season so far, against Rochdale Hornets in the Northern Rail Cup.

All Golds, Gloucestershire’s new addition to the league, stunned Gateshead in the Northern Rail; shocked Hull’s Skirlaugh in the Tetley’s Challenge Cup and rattled up 30 points in defeat against Tony Benson’s Oxford.

But there was never danger of a repeat on a cold, damp day at the Prince of Wales stadium in Cheltenham.

Roughyeds were so efficient in the tackle and keen to work off the ball that the All Golds were largely restricted in attack to scrum-half Matthew Bradley’s salvo of speculative high kicks, which occasionally had full-back Richard Lepori in a spot of bother.

That apart, they never seriously threatened to score, though their effort, determination and physicality could never be questioned.

In stark contrast, Oldham scored seven — two by Lepori and one each for Adam Files, Kenny Hughes, Lewis Palfrey, Mo Agoro and Neil Roden.

The front-row forwards did the spadework, initially featuring ever-reliable Jason Boults and young Callum Marriott and later starring their replacements in Phil Joy and Michael Ward.

They regularly bust the defensive line and restarted with a swift play-the-ball to get it into the hands of halves Lewis Palfrey or Neil Roden as quickly as possible.

Palfrey, the captain, was at the heart of everything Oldham tried to achieve.

Tries apart, there were two more significant happenings in the first half, the first when Liam Thompson came off the bench after 25 minutes for his first taste of senior rugby in an Oldham jersey, having proved his fitness after a shoulder operation with two outings in the second team.

Five minutes later Langtree and Tyla Hepi traded punches and both were sin-binned, with the penalty awarded to the home side.

Oldham continued to dominate in the second half and thus finished worthy winners to climb to joint third in the division and to set things up nicely for the next match at Whitebank with the visit of Oxford on April 28.