Mervill poised for first start
Reporter: Roughyeds latest by MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date published: 27 February 2009
RICHARD MERVILL
ROUGHYEDS coach Tony Benson is set to give first starts of the season to Richard Mervill, Paul Reilly and Luke Menzies at Hunslet on Sunday (2pm kick off).
Hard-working prop Mervill has yet to feature at all this season, with a knee injury hampering his progress along with shift patterns in his new job as a firefighter.
Former Batley forward Menzies played in the three pre-season friendlies but will now get his first chance in competitive action, while ex-Huddersfield utility back Reilly has played from the bench in all three Northern Rail Cup ties so far but looks set for some extended game time in the centres.
Lucas Onyango starts on the wing in place of Lee Greenwood, who misses a week due to stitches on the inside and outside of his mouth as a result of a facial injury.
Paul Highton has shaken off wrist trouble to feature and Thomas Coyle has made such a swift recovery from a knee injury that he takes the place of Neil Roden to line up alongside his brother James in the halves.
Benson felt his team needed some freshening up, even against Sheffield at Boundary Park last weekend.
“It was always going to happen, but I didn’t have the option open to me last week,” he said, ahead of a final pool one game which Oldham need to win to rubber-stamp their passage to the last eight.
Those members of the first-team squad not in Benson’s 18-man party for the Hunslet first-team game will instead take on the Hawks’ reserves at the South Leeds Stadium tonight (8pm).
That number includes Simeon Hoyle, now back from a pre-arranged trip abroad, Wayne Kerr - if he shakes off flu-type symptoms - Jason Boults, Craig Littler, Roden, Luke Sutton, Anthony Bingham and Mark Smith.
It will be John Hough and Leo Casey’s first pre-season game in charge since signing new one-year deals as coaching duo of Oldham’s reserves team.
Oldham (from): O’Connor, Ballard, Reilly, St Hilaire, Onyango, T Coyle, J Coyle, Highton, Joseph, Mervill, Menzies, Goulden, Allen, I’Anson, Baines, Roberts, Sykes, Halliwell.
