Benson has an eye on the future

JAMES COYLE: An ever-present for the Roughyeds this season.

ROUGHYEDS coach Tony Benson wants every member of his first-team squad to be up to speed come crunch time in the season.

With a roster of 24 players who have turned out for the club in competitive matches — not including the currently unavailable Simeon Hoyle, the now-departed Stevie Gibbons or the soon-to-be-fit Army winger Ben Seru — the Oldham coach has had the ‘luxury’ of rotating players in certain positions at times this year.

The policy may have left some fans pondering what certain men have done to be left out, but Benson revealed that the thinking behind it is long-term.

“With our squad, we could go and put out our best team week in and week out,” said Benson, who takes his troops to face Swinton at Sedgley Park on Sunday (3pm kick off) bidding for a seventh win in nine Co-operative Championship One matches.

“But if we do that, then we would lose too many players to injury and would be forced to rotate, with players not ready to come in from the cold.

“Eventually, I want to get us to the level where it doesn’t matter who plays, where it doesn’t make a difference to our effectiveness as a team.

“That way, if we find ourselves in a final faced with a number of injuries we can cover for that.

“It is a difficult job keeping the squad happy, though, especially when a player who has been performing well finds himself out of the side.

“But it is designed to benefit us later on.”

Only two Roughyeds players — full-back Paul O’Connor and stand-off James Coyle — have played in every Northern Rail Cup, Challenge Cup and Co-operative Championship One fixture this season.

In the case of the elder of the two Coyle brothers, the 2009 season thus far has seen an unbroken run of games extended to a remarkable 59, stretching back to the 32-18 home defeat to Celtic Crusaders in front of the Sky Sports cameras in August, 2007.

Oldham’s opponents this weekend have experienced a slump in terms of results of late.

Swinton’s 32-16 loss away to rivals Keighley Cougars last week was the team’s third straight defeat in what was previously an unbeaten campaign.

That game against Barry Eaton’s side was a tight one but ultimately went the way of the home side due to two converted tries in the final 10 minutes.

The first of the trio of recent Lions defeats came at Boundary Park a month ago. Paul Kidd’s men were beaten 52-36 in a madcap game featuring 15 tries in total, all scored by different players.

Swinton followed that up with a battling effort in a 35-22 home loss to leaders Dewsbury — a fame many observers felt the Lions should have won — before the Cougar Park defeat.

The Sedgley Park outfit strengthened their squad last week with the acquisition on a month’s loan of promising Huddersfield Giants winger Richard Lopag.

The 19-year-old, who had a try disallowed on debut against Keighley, was a record breaker in his junior days with Deighton where he once scored an incredible 169 tries in a single season.

Lopag’s presence makes up for the loss of fellow winger Barry Hamilton, out for up to six weeks after dislocating a shoulder.

Also missing for Swinton are livewire hooker Phil Wood, out for a month with an eye injury, and Tommy Grundy (bicep) though wide man Andy Saywell could return on Sunday.


DOUBLE glory is the goal for Roughyeds winger Lee Greenwood as he leads his Siddal side into the Ace Insurance (Europe) BARLA National Cup final tomorrow.

Wigan St Cuthberts of the North-West Counties premier division are the opponents for the Halifax side, who already have the National Conference League title under their belts. The game takes place at Fylde RUFC (3.30pm kick off).