Seru eager to get a taste of the action

OUT TO IMPRESS: Winger Ben Seru, shown competing for The Army, is back in full training with the Roughyeds and hopes to work his way into Tony Benson’s plans between now and the season’s end. Picture courtesy of Soldier magazine.

LIGHTNING WINGER TARGETS FIRST-TEAM COMEBACK

ARMY flyer Ben Seru is determined to prove his worth at Oldham.

The unlucky 31-year-old suffered a devastating blow only minutes after being thrown in to a Challenge Cup quarter-final at Super League club Wakefield last season — on his professional debut.

Despite only being on the field for a short time, Seru looked instantly dangerous, bringing back memories of how his storming runs and never-say-die defence lit up an earlier Cup tie where he scored two tries against Oldham for The Army.

After more than a year out of the game following a full knee reconstruction, Seru has recently made a scoring comeback with Oldham's reserves.

A member of the 21 Engineer Regiment, Seru hopes to soon have an impact on first-team duty, if not this season then in 2010. A six-month stint in Afghanistan next year may complicate things, though.

“I was just looking forward to having a good game at Wakefield on my debut, then I got injured within the first five minutes,” explains the Ripon-based Fijian winger, who represented The Army in last week's Carnegie Floodlit Nines tournament at Headingley.

“I was gutted. It has been a long way back but The Army have been very helpful and I have had light jobs to do as I recovered.

“I have played a few games for the reserves over the last three weeks and hopefully I can play for the first team soon if given the chance.

“I am going over to Afghanistan in March for six months, so at the moment am very busy preparing for that while also training with Oldham. It is a long time away, but it is something I am looking forward to.

“At the same time, I would really love to play for Oldham again next season.”

As for this year, Seru is currently pushing for a place on the wing for the final regular season game away at Hunslet Hawks on Sunday.

Regular left wing man Lee Greenwood is currently suffering from a problem related to his shoulder and collar bone, which restricted his movement during the 37-24 home defeat to York.

With Lucas Onyango on the right side and fellow Andy Ballard having long since departed the club to join Barrow, Seru is the only obvious option available to coach Tony Benson to fill in for Greenwood should he not regain fitness in time.

Up to this point in the season, two of Ballard, Onyango and Greenwood have appeared in every league and cup match.

Thomas Coyle, who scored a brace of tries in the defeat to the Knights, has moved into the lead as the Roughyeds’ top Co-operative Championship One try scorer with 13, ahead of Ballard and Greenwood who are both on 10.