Roberts revved up for final push

Rob Roberts

ROUGHYEDS captain Rob Roberts admits he would have liked to join Oldham years ago.

The 29-year-old arrived at the club midway through last season with a reputation in the game as a hell-raiser, but has since proved to be an inspirational leader both on and off the field.

Having celebrated signing a new one-year deal with the club by beating Rochdale 38-14, a game featuring a superb second-half fightback, ‘Two Bobs’ is as excited as ever about his rugby.

Now, he believes the team he leads out is well-set to gain promotion by defeating Doncaster at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington, on Sunday (1.30pm kick off).

“I wish I had have come to the club a bit earlier in my career and then maybe I wouldn’t have had a few of the hiccups I have had,” said the Wales international.

“But it isn’t just on the field, it is off the field — I have got a father figure in Deaks, a big brother in Chris Hamilton and some of the women in the office are like surrogate mums, shall we say!

“It is a great place to be around at the moment and win or lose, we have got that base now to take the club forward.

“It was nice to get back to winning ways against Rochdale and in the second half we were outstanding.

“We showed a lot of togetherness. It filtered back to us that they thought our forwards were a bit weak and that we couldn’t stand up against them.

“But I thought our forwards really got stuck in on Sunday and hopefully, on the back of that, we can take the same into Sunday’s game. We are really buzzing about it.”

Roberts is one of eight players expected to take to the field on Sunday who experienced the 24-6 defeat by Featherstone at the same stage last season.

This time around, he hopes to get his hands on the winners’ silverware.

“There is nothing worse than losing a Grand Final and seeing another team parade the cup around the pitch,” Roberts added.

“It isn’t a nice feeling at all. Last year, I was really, really disappointed. We put a lot of effort in towards the back end of the season. But it might hold us in good stead — being there last year, having the experience and the feeling for a Grand Final.

“Hopefully we can go one better this time.”

The two sides have met three times so far this season, with Doncaster winning two of those. The most recent fixture saw Ellery Hanley’s men come away from Boundary Park with a 32–20 victory two weeks ago which put them straight through to Sunday’s showpiece event.

The last time they played in a final — in the Northern Rail Cup earlier this season — the South Yorkshire side came unstuck, losing 60-0 to Salford City Reds.

The bookmakers think a repeat scoreline is highly unlikely. The majority have both sides at 5-6, with others slightly favouring the Roughyeds.