Roughyeds No 2 in grass roots appeal

Lee Spencer, Roughyeds’ assistant coach.

Oldham RL club assistant coach Lee Spencer is keen for local rugby fans to support what he and head coach Scott Naylor are trying to achieve at the town’s professional club.

Under the pair, Roughyeds finished second and third respectively in Championship One in 2013 and 2014, reaching the play-off final both years and missing promotion last year only because Hunslet Hawks snatched an extra-time, golden-point winner in a heartbreaking Grand Final at Headingley.

The only third-tier team to boast an unbeaten home record last season, Naylor’s men haven’t been overturned at Whitebank since Rochdale beat them by one point in September 2013.

Spencer has already pleaded with fans to get behind the young squad that will fly Oldham’s flag this season and which is already through to the semi-final of the new iPro Sport Cup.

Now he is urging local amateur rugby clubs and young players to take a look at the Roughyeds’ set-up.

“Scott and I would love to be involved more with the local community clubs and the grass roots game in the town,” said Spencer.

“We’d like to forge links with the amateurs and develop a relationship and a mutual understanding of what we are all trying to build on behalf of our great sport.

“My background is in youth rugby and over the years I’ve coached loads of Oldham lads on regional and national camps, not to mention all the Oldham youngsters who passed through the academy at Salford Red Devils when I was there.

“Super League clubs take on heaps of kids at a very young age, but only a very few make it to the top and I think it’s worth considering that there’s also a pathway to progress via clubs lower down the pecking order.”

Spencer added: “We will be happy to go along and talk to the amateur clubs and do the best we can to answer any queries from them, or from fans, on any subject relating to the playing side of the club. and our long-term objectives over the next three years.”