Ice cold in Maesteg!

MUDDY MARVELS . . . Oldham RL players give Adam Files a pat on the back after scoring his side’s second try against South Wales Scorpions.

OLDHAM expect the RFL to award them three league points from their abandoned game in South Wales.

They led 18-4 with eight minutes left when referee Adam Gill pulled the players off in appalling freezing rain, a pitch that held water and bitterly-cold winds.

Oldham winger Dale Bloomfield and Scorpions’ skipper Phil Carleton had already been taken to the warmth of the dressing rooms suffering from hypothermia-like symptoms.

Others on both teams complained of similar symptoms as the icy blast battered the hilltop Maesteg ground.

Match commissioner Alan Smith and both clubs supported the referee’s decision.

Said Smith: “The pitch didn’t look good from the stands, but at ground level you could see it was even worse.”

Roughyeds’ coach Scott Naylor, who played most of his career when rugby league was a winter sport, said: “They were the worst conditions I’ve ever seen on a rugby field. The referee told me at half-time of his concerns for player-safety. Later on it got completely out of hand.”

Club chairman Chris Hamilton said that in the 17 years of the current Oldham club, no player had suffered hypothermia before: “Heavy rain was non-stop from about an hour before kick-off and throughout the game. The wind picked up in the second half and from then on it was difficult to get across to people who weren’t there just how severe it was.”

Chris Thair, chief operations officer for Wales Rugby League, confirmed that Scorpions supported the referee’s decision and were happy for the result to stand.