Roughyeds fall at the final hurdle

Date published: 30 September 2013


OLDHAM 18, HORNETS 32

THERE’S no room for losers at the end of a play-off.

While Rochdale’s victors danced and hugged surrounded by reporters and television crews, the broken-hearted vanquished men of Oldham walked slowly away to their subdued dressing room.

Club physiotherapist Rachel Johnson, leaving the club after six years, admitted she wept. She wasn’t alone.

Sport can be cruel, mean and unforgiving, like denying Roughyeds promotion when for the past seven months they were streets ahead of the team that will go up to the Championship.

Scott Naylor’s men finished two points behind Crusaders but nine ahead of Rochdale - yet Hornets will be playing the likes of Featherstone, Sheffield, Halifax, Leigh and Batley next year while Roughyeds are condemned to their eighth season of third-tier rugby.

Nobody could begrudge Rochdale, given they were the better side in this win. They scored three unanswered tries - 20 points - in the last 20 minutes to ram home their superiority. It was a win that was thoroughly deserved, as Naylor immediately recognised.

But he is bound to question whether the play-off system is fair - and to feel just a little bit aggrieved that his young side hasn't been rewarded for its remarkable consistency this season.

The momentum of this game swung to and fro until the middle of the second half, when Hornets grabbed the lead for the third and final time to take the game out of Oldham’s reach.

Stand-off Paul Crook was again the game’s outstanding individual, winning a man-of-the-match trophy plus £200 for landing six goals from as many shots; constantly turning Roughyeds round; and making Mo Agoro’s life a misery by challenging the Oldham winger to defuse high and speculative bombs.

Full-back Richard Lepori, winger Dale Bloomfield, stand-off Lewis Palfrey, prop Phil Joy and wide-running second-row runners Josh Crowley and Danny Langtree looked good for Oldham. But Roughyeds never looked as composed on the ball as Hornets

In most games this season Oldham have finished the stronger side, but when Hornets went for the jugular in the final quarter they had little left with which to fight back.

Big-match nerves also affected Naylor’s boys, who were on the back-pedal from the start.