Bears grilled

Photo: PAUL STERRITT

Michael Ward runs with the ball.

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OLDHAM 46, COVENTRY BEARS 6

COVENTRY won’t be the toughest or the most talented opponents Oldham face this season, but it is still a good effort to hit them with 16 tries in two games.

Seven tries in last week’s 42-6 iPro Sport win at Whitebank were followed by nine more in this Ladbrokes Challenge Cup 46-6 triumph against the same opponents on the same ground.

The first big challenge for the Roughyeds’ class of 2015 will be provided by Barrow Raiders at Craven Park this weekend - but Scott Naylor’s men will travel to Cumbria in the knowledge that they couldn’t have done more than to twice send the sport’s third-tier new boys home wondering what they have let themselves in for.

There are definite signs that Naylor’s strong men - who operate in the middle, where the contest is at its toughest - are also getting into the habit of cleverly letting the ball do the work when more than a robust, head-down charge to hit the gain line is demanded.

Yesterday many fans would argue the pick of Oldham's nine tries was the fourth, by Liam Thompson.

Michael Ward slipped Michael Learmonth into a midfield gap, followed him to take the return pass and then sent in Thompson for an excellent try — a move started, continued and finished by three separate forwards without a half-back or a cross-kick in sight. How good was that?

There were other similar examples too of defence-splitting inter-passing by the forwards, one of which featured five or six pairs of hands in the second half and would have brought the house down had Palfrey taken Phil Joy’s final pass instead of knocking-on.

This was a very accomplished all-round team performance on a day when Naylor kept his promise to make changes. Steven Nield came in at full-back; Jack Holmes switched to centre; George Tyson moved from centre into his preferred second-row spot; and Kenny Hughes and the on-loan Learmonth joined Files and Michael Ward on the bench.

In many respects the pattern of the game was similar to last week’s with Coventry making a game of it for 20 minutes or so and then gradually fading from the picture as Oldham’s forwards wore them down.

Oldham lapsed a little after half-time and didn’t pick up the tempo again until Matt Cooper forced his way over from close range and Stephen Coleman converted to give Bears their only points.

It gave the home side a kick up the rear, after which Palfrey came into his own on the back of the pack’s total supremacy to fashion further tries by Adam Clay (two), Learmonth and Holmes.