Pure class beats blues

Danny Langtree pushes aside an Oxford opponent

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OXFORD 22, OLDHAM 38

TWO textbook tries in two minutes at the start of the second half highlighted Oldham’s third win in a row.

Oxford went in at half-time trailing 10-14, but by the time they next got their hands on the ball they were 10-26 behind and in trouble.

Oldham received possession from the second-half restart kick and produced a perfect set, ending with Dale Bloomfield scoring in the corner on the last tackle.

In almost identical fashion from the next restart, Roughyeds produced a sizzling encore, this time Ben Wood putting the finishing touches to a set in which the visitors had again gone from one end of the field to the other within their tackle allocation.

“They were quality sets and quality tries,” enthused assistant boss Lee Spencer

Lewis Palfrey converted both tries, the first a gem off the left-hand touchline.

But this was a day the division’s top goalkicker and leading points scorer will want to forget, given that he missed five attempts on goal.

Mo Agoro, Josh Crowley, Danny Langtree (twice), Bloomfield (twice), Wood and Cookson all scored tries, but the normally reliable Palfrey added the extras to only three of them.

Of his five failures, three were off the touchline, or close to it, but the other two were relatively easy shots, one of which hit a post.

But what of the positives of this seventh league win in eight outings on a day when close rivals Hunslet Hawks crashed to their third defeat?

Every other team in Championship One has now suffered more defeats than Roughyeds, beaten only at Hunslet and Hemel.

Individually, Agoro extended his try-scoring run to nine games with probably the easiest touchdown he’s had all season.

Both he and his fellow winger Bloomfield further enhanced their growing reputation as the best pair of wingers in the sport’s third tier, the latter by scoring the first and last tries of the second half thanks to, among other things, splendid centre play by the man on his inside, Jon Ford.

Langtree, another top performer, also scored twice, both by picking up passes off his bootlaces and stretching for the line.

Judging by how Oxford produced some nice rugby and kept hitting back, it was hard to understand how this was their sixth defeat in a row.