Completely outplayed

FLEETING JOY: David Cookson runs in for an Oldham try.

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YORK CITY KNIGHTS 54, OLDHAM 12

HUNSLET did it, Hemel did it and York cottoned on and followed suit.

Roughyeds have been rumbled.

It isn’t easy, and only the toughest, most committed sides can pull it off.

But cause confusion among Oldham’s big forwards — the pack they rely on to see them home more often than not — and the whole side is likely to fall into total and utter disarray.

Then, with a decent half-back or, in this case, a clever pair of half-backs, you move in for the kill and discover they are just as likely to crack as any other side whose forwards are knocked about, made to look and feel inferior and put in their place.

Nobody has managed to do it at Whitebank — yet — but Hemel and York went close.

Away from the fortress, with its slope and narrow confines which Roughyeds know so well, it’s been a different story.

Hunslet, and James Coyle, pulled it off at the South Leeds Stadium, where the Hawks won 38-12.

Hemel, and the brilliant Jy-Mel Coleman, put 44 points past Naylor’s men in Hertfordshire.

York, masterminded by Pat Smith and Ben Reynolds, did even better in this one, rattling up 54 points, the biggest total Oldham have conceded under Scott Naylor.

It was obvious from what happened in the first few sets that York had set out their stall to gain a strangle-hold in the forwards.

They crossed the advantage line and made the hard yards on every drive. In defence, they were quickly into the tackle in twos and threes, stopping Oldham’s forwards dead in their tracks or even driving them back over several yards.

“We carried out our game plan to the letter,” enthused York coach Gary Thornton. “Reynolds, Pat Smith and Jack Lee (hooker) were terrific in that.

“To beat Oldham, you’ve got to dominate their big pack. We challenged our forwards to take them on and beat them at their own game.

“We always believed that if we could do that, we had enough pace and quality at half-back and out wide to finish them off, and that’s what happened.”

The big worry for Oldham is that, on all three occasions when this has happened, the side has gone to pieces and has looked shell-shocked and panic stricken.

Defence at York deteriorated to the woeful, both close to the line and in open play. In possession, they were reduced to fumbling their way around, lacking shape, going nowhere and constantly giving the ball away with wretched handling and panic passes.

This was Oldham at their worst in a game that resembled top v bottom rather than a battle of the top two sides in the division.

Battle? Naylor’s men on this occasion looked to have neither the mental toughness nor the physical capabilities to stop the early rot and then fight back.

They were too soft, too easily challenged and far too lackadaisical — and this in a game that meant an awful lot to their club and its supporters.

Changes were forced on Naylor because Mo Agoro, Jon Ford, Kenny Hughes and Nathan Mason, all influential in their own way, were ruled out by injury or illness.

They were replaced by new-boy Adam Clay, Edwin Okanga-Ajwang, Danny Whitmore and George Tyson, but Naylor was quick to point out in his post-match summing up, and rightly so, that these changes had little or no bearing on a dreadful team performance.

As often happens when a side hits rock bottom, the bounce of the ball goes against it too. In this case, that merely added to the frustrations of a group of players who went about their work in a slapdash manner and gave away nine penalties in a row.

In stark contrast, York ran stronger, tackled harder, were more efficient with ball in hand and looked yards faster on the break when their backing-up and support work was first class.

They were already 30-0, with tries by Pat Smith, Jack Lee, James Saltonstall, Ben Dent and the outstanding Reynolds before Oldham opened their scoring with a David Cookson try, goaled by Lewis Palfrey shortly before half-time.

A dual-registered youngster from Castleford Tigers, Reynolds converted each of the nine York tries to crown a man-of-the-match performance, matched all but marginally by his three-try half-back partner, Pat Smith.

Leading 36-6 at half-time, the home side stretched their lead to 54-6 with second-half tries by Pat Smith (two) and Joe Pickets before Oldham got a last-minute consolation score.

Josh Crowley ran wide and turned Dale Bloomfield inside. Despite hobbling from an injury sustained earlier when he had another effort disallowed, the winger got over for a try which Palfrey converted off the touchline.

The hooter blew immediately to put Oldham out of their misery, and to bring an end to the torment suffered by their fans.