Harlequin young gun joins Oldham set

OLDHAM Roughyeds have snapped up Jack Graves, a young forward from Super League club Harlequins.

The 20-year-old has been training with the Quins’ first-team squad for the past two years while playing for their academy sides. He was not offered a full-time deal by Quins but instead of making the short move to London Skolars, Graves has elected to take a shot at developing his game in the sport’s heartlands.

Born in Windsor, he stands at 6ft 2in and weighs in at 15-and-a-half stones and can cover 100 metres in fractionally over 11 seconds.

Like his fellow young Roughyeds colleagues Danny Whitmore (Salford City Reds), Ben Mellor (Warrington Wolves), Kashley Watkins (Leeds Rhinos) and Joe Chandler (Leeds Rhinos), Graves becomes available as a result of the senior academy turning into an under-20s competition.

“He could have gone to Skolars, but he wanted to come up north to test himself at a higher level and we are delighted to give him that opportunity,” said Roughyeds chairman Chris Hamilton.

Graves played all his junior and youth rugby with Windsor RUFC and in his first season at Quins RL in 2006, took in a few games at full-back.

A switch of position in 2007 enabled him to put in a strong set of performances in the back row of the pack and led to him being named in the Quins side for the 2008 pre-season Capital Challenge game against Skolars. He was then invited to train with the first-team squad in 2008 and again in 2009.

Graves has been training with Oldham for the past week and although he will go home for Christmas, he is back up for the Law Cup game at Rochdale on Sunday, January 3, after which he will remain north to find accommodation and a job.

The Roughyeds office on Lansdowne Road, Chadderton, is open until 7pm tomorrow for those wishing to buy reduced-price season tickets. It is then open until 5pm on Wednesday and until noon on Thursday.