Going the extra mile

Date published: 23 June 2014


GATESHEAD 14, OLDHAM 32

OLDHAM coach Scott Naylor’s view is that any rugby player worth his salt must have in his armoury the guts and mental toughness of legendary runner Brendan Foster, able to go the extra mile for the club.

No surprise, then, that he was suitably impressed when, in the middle of the track on which Foster performed so many heroics, his Roughyeds came from the back to overcome adversity, fight their way through the pack and hit the tape victoriously with plenty to spare.

Gateshead got off to a bad start then in the next 20 minutes delighted their new owners by hurrying into a 14-6 lead. Oldham were in trouble.

Danny Whitmore was off the field for 10 minutes when Payne scored Thunder’s third try, the Oldham hooker having lost his cool and duly sin-binned - leaving Roughyeds with 12 men against a side whose confidence was then sky-high.

Of the side Oldham hammered at Whitebank in April only nine players remained in Thunder’s 17.

Naylor made only one change - Danny Langtree returning from suspension to replace the injured George

Tyson.

Oldham were off to a blistering start. Steve Nield, fielding Rooney’s high kick at the end of the opening set, made a great break on the counter attack and set up position from which the ball was shifted quickly left for Dale Bloomfield to score in the corner. Lewis Palfrey kicked a great goal off the touchline.

But after that Oldham suffered a horrors of their own before gathering themselves, getting their act together and going on to score 26 points without reply.

It didn’t look so promising though early on when a succession of errors, like twice failing to deal with restart kicks, gave Thunder the momentum and early authority.

Within two minutes of Heil scoring the first Thunder try, a dreadful Oldham pass was pounced on by Stamp, who raced clear to score. Worse was to come when Payne managed to score from close range.

Oldham desperately needed something to lift them and it came when Payne, Thunder’s talisman, was bundled into touch by aggressive defence from David Cookson, Agoro and Langtree.

That was the turning point. After that, Michael Ward had a try disallowed by a touchjudge for offside.

Ben Wood, Josh Crowley and Hughes were all held up over the line (as was Phil Joy later on) before Oldham were finally rewarded when Crowley collected another Palfrey kick to dive in which the Roughyeds captain converted.

Oldham had bitten back just before half-time, and never looked back. Thunder had started to concede penalties (Oldham had a run of eight out of nine at one stage) and this gave the visitors all the momentum they needed to take control.

Great running rugby featuring Roper, Palfrey, Nield and Cookson ended with Agoro crashing over in the corner after taking a couple of defenders with him.

Minutes later, another Palfrey kick to Thunder’s left side caused more problems and Agoro again got the touchdown.

As Oldham surged forward relentlessly, Jon Ford broke with Hughes on his inside. He didn’t execute as well as he should, but Thunder were penalised for obstruction on Bloomfield and this led to another Oldham try, scored this time by Palfrey after a Roper kick had done the damage.

Ford then grabbed his customary interception try to put the issue beyond doubt, after which Oldham defended stoutly to render Thunder scoreless in the second half and to prevent them picking up a bonus point.