Barber is a cut above

Josh Watson makes his presence felt.

RUGBY UNION: 

Birchfield 36, Oldham RUFC 43

CAPTAIN and coach Gareth Barber scored a hat-trick as Oldham maintained their unbeaten run and stayed top of North Lancashire Division One.

But Barber won’t have been happy with his team’s ill-discipline, which could have proved costly.

The league leaders went into this game without Will Mellor, so Jordan Green played scrum-half.

After an early spell of pressure, Oldham went ahead when Callum Megram scored with a penalty kick in front of the posts. But the local side had to wait until the 20th minute before scoring.

Martin Hamer made the break and Phil Conroy carried the ball on before supplying Forestier with an excellent pass to go over wide.

Oldham then pushed the self-destruct button. The referee awarded Birchfield a penalty and marched back the Oldham defence another 10 metres for backchat. The ball was worked from right to left and Birchfield scored by the corner flag.

Oldham suffered another blow on the half-hour when they lost Hamer to a knee injury. Two minutes later Barber showed his class with a shimmy and sidestep to score in the corner. Megram added a great conversion from the touchline.

From the restart Ryan North made a fantastic from defence, ghosting his way around Birchfield before putting Barber away for his second try.

With the extras Oldham seemed in complete command at 22-5 ahead. But Oldham took their foot off the gas and two Birchfield tries, one of them converted, brought the scoreline back to 22-17 at the break.

Oldham suffered another setback after 50 minutes when North was dispatched to the sin bin.

The game continued to be close, with nip-and-tuck action from both teams

But Oldham gradually took command and Barber went over for his hat-trick and Megram converted, rendering Birchfield’s late try merely a consolation.