Poor Oldham lose their way

GETTING to grips: Oldham’s Andy Ballard grabs Whitehaven’s Ade Adebisi. Picture courtesy of SWpix.com

A COMPREHENSIVE defeat to a scratch Rochdale side rounded off a wretched Northern Rail Nines tournament in which little went right for the Roughyeds.

Certain aspects of the weekend – the team coach driver getting hopelessly lost on the way across, a situation which culminated in the players arriving at Fylde RUFC five minutes before their first match against Whitehaven – you can chalk down as being outside anybody at the club’s control.

Similarly, the squad that Tony Benson selected for the two-day tournament didn’t suit the conditions. On arrival at the venue it turned out that the touchlines on the two pitches in use had been brought substantially infield, which in turn meant burrowing front row men, all left at home, were vital but missing components in the squad.

Nonetheless, the sight of Oldham meekly surrendering to bitter rivals Rochdale on the morning of the second day – a third loss from four games played – certainly didn’t help to highlight any of the above-mentioned difficulties the team faced.

The performance was poor enough to lead Benson to question whether his own team had the stomach to put up any sort of fight.

While it is harsh to cast young Mark Smith as the villain of the piece, seeing as he was extremely contrite afterwards, a back-heeled attempt to convert Paul O’Connor’s opening try in the Hornets game was acutely embarrassing for everyone concerned and aptly summed up both the match and the tournament from a Roughyeds perspective.

There was precious little enthusiasm for the fight and a dismal quarter-final exit in the second-chance Plate competition was about all the squad deserved.

Despite the late arrival at the ground, with some players said to have gotten changed on the coach itself, Oldham managed to get off to a flyer in the first group game against Whitehaven.

Chris Baines, who, along with Craig Robinson and Lucas Onyango were the best of Oldham’s performers across the two days, went over in the first minute against the Cumbrian side. But hat was as good as it got in a sterile opening performance in which Whitehaven went on to triumph 16-4.

Next up, just over two hours later in mid-afternoon on a pleasant, warm afternoon, were Featherstone.

This time, the Roughyeds put up a decent fight before succumbing to a 20-16 loss which put the team out of the running for the main Trophy.

After going 12-0 behind with half-time approaching, Oldham thought they had snatched a vital score just before the hooter, only for Thomas Coyle’s delicate chip over the defensive line, taken on on by brother James who touched down, to be deemed offside,

Inevitably, the resulting penalty saw Featherstone perform exactly the same move, profiting to hold a 16-0 advantage as the teams changed ends.

Mercifully, Oldham fired after the switch. Andy Ballard raced down centre-field for the first, Thomas Coyle showed a neat step for the second and, after a further score from the West Yorkshire side which effectively ended the contest, Ballard pounced after Tommy Goulden had hacked a ball infield off the left touchline.

A night’s rest failed to invigorate Oldham. After finishing below fellow Group E sides Sheffield and Halifax, next up was a Plate quarter-final against Rochdale, who needed a pre-qualifying win over Workington to get through to the last eight.

After going behind to O’Connor’s opener in the left corner, the Hornets’ superior power and enthusiasm took the game their way. Former Saddleworth Rangers centre Marlon Miller added to triallist Jamie Dallimore’s opener which he had also converted for a 10-4 half-time lead.

Ex-Roughyeds forward Andrew Isherwood then added a quick-fire double before Oldhamer Casey Mayberry rounded off a fine end-to-end move started by Martin Ainscough’s interception, Craig Robinson’s late solo effort providing precious little solace for the disappointing Roughyeds.

Overall, it was frankly a very poor effort.

Oldham squad: Baines, Ballard, J Coyle, T Coyle, Goulden, Greenwood, Halliwell, Heaton, Mansfield, O’Connor, Onyango, Robinson, Smith, Sykes.

Results –

Groups D and E:

Oldham 4 (try: Baines), Whitehaven 16; Featherstone 20, Oldham 16 (tries: Ballard 2, T Coyle; goal: Ballard, Halliwell); Oldham 24 (tries: Onyango 3, Ballard, J Coyle 2), Workington 14.

Plate quarter-final: Oldham 8 (tries: O’Connor, Robinson), Rochdale 26 (tries: Dallimore, Miller, Isherwood 2, Mayberry; goals: Dallimore, Isherwood 2) .


Benson unhappy at derby defeat

TONY BENSON made it perfectly clear what he thought of his team’s efforts in slipping to an embarrassing defeat to local rivals Rochdale: nowhere near good enough.

The Roughyeds slumped to a 26-8 loss which ended the team’s interest in the first-ever Northern Rail Nines tournament at the quarter-finals stage of the Plate competition.

The main Trophy was already out of reach due to two defeats out of three to Whitehaven and Featherstone the previous day, but it was the heavy reverse to a scratch Hornets side featuring 37-year-old coach Darren Shaw which hurt the most for Benson, watching chief executive Chris Hamilton and the fans who had travelled to Fylde.

“We just wanted to get it over with I think, which is not ideal,” said a downcast Benson afterwards.

“The talk around the place today (Sunday) was teams not wanting to win.

“I am not sure if that was the case with us, but that was the general thing you picked up from the atmosphere.

“I would expect any Oldham team playing here to really go out there and give it their all, but I wouldn’t say that has happened so I am pretty disappointed with it.

“I said to the players at half-time in the Rochdale game that this is a derby, we are playing for pride and we have to have a go.

“To be fair, losing three men (Paul O’Connor, Lucas Onyango and James Coyle) during that game and only having one substitute left didn’t help us at all. But there are no excuses for it. Overall I am very disappointed with the whole thing.”

The Roughyeds coach also stated that the unexpectedly narrow pitches had an adverse effect on his team’s chances, with no recognised prop forwards in the named 15-man squad.

“The concept is good, but I am not sure everybody has bought into it,” he added. “It is pretty tough coming up for two days and one day might be better.

“We were caught out, as some of the other teams were, with the size of the pitch. They have called it Nines, so we didn’t bring any front rowers, but the pitch has been cut right down.

“By doing that, the organisers have made it a game that is all to do with go-forward whereas we thought it would be a game where you would be able to throw it around.”