Roughyeds not disheartened by heavy defeat

Date published: 07 April 2014


BRADFORD 60, OLDHAM 6

Time was when a 60-6 defeat for Oldham at Odsal, as it was traditionally known, would have caused a right old rumpus back at base.

Not now – not on a day when Leeds put 60 past Wakefield of the same division, and Featherstone saw off North Wales Crusaders 66-0 in an all-Championship clash.

Of the five third tier clubs to compete in this weekend’s fourth round Tetley’s Challenge Cup ties, only Scott Naylor’s men faced Super League opponents.

Big scores were the order of the day regardless: London Skolars were hit for 70 at Sheffield Eagles, Hemel Stags conceded 68 at Doncaster, Keighley hit 54 at home to Barrow, Castleford beat Batley

48-10 and Wigan topped the half-century against Dewsbury.

Realistically, the most Naylor could expect was to see his side battle against the odds and not to lose heart

His players lived up to that wish with flying colours and reputations intact.

They scrapped for every crumb of possession, worked hard to retain it and rolled up their sleeves when Bradford had the ball in defensive play that lacked nothing in determination.

Oldham couldn’t afford to surrender possession and astonishingly, given they were conceding so much weight, size and strength, boasted 100 per cent set completion in the first 20 minutes of each half.

They made only one handling error in the whole of the first half. They played good rugby without seriously threatening the Bulls line, while always working hard in defence and forcing the Bulls to make numerous errors.

With a minute of the first half left they trailed only 18-6. Oldham did most things right in the first half, but Bradford had the strength, speed and skill to make solo breaks that produced tries and conversions

Oldham’s big moment came in the 25th minute. Bulls were penalised for obstruction and in the next set Kenny Hughes went to dummy half close to Bradford’s line, spotted a chink in the line and squeezed through to open Oldham’s account.

As Danny Whitmore’s replacement at hooker, he had only been on the field a couple of minutes — a timely substitution that was to give the visitors a huge lift when they needed it.

Lewis Palfrey’s conversion cut the deficit further and at that stage, only 12 points behind, Oldham threatened twice more.

It looked liked Oldham would hang on to half time, but with time running out fast Dale Ferguson broke from deep inside the Bradford half and Kear scored by the posts —- a cruel blow at a critical time.

At the start of the second half Oldham won the ball back from the kick off and strong pressure ended with Phil Joy held inches short of the line on the last tackle of the set.

Roughyeds were visibly tiring and started to give away penalties.

By the time the second half was six minutes old, Bradford had scored two further tries. As Bulls found more time and space, Oldham became increasingly weary and started to give away penalties.

Referee Chris Leatherbarrow was forced to quit with ankle trouble midway through the half when he was replaced by one of the touch judges. It didn’t stem the flow of Bradford penalties, nor did it stop Oldham’s spirited attempts to hit back.

Despite the score, which didn’t truly represent Oldham’s overall contribution, Naylor and his troops could feel satisfied by a job well done.