Onyango boosts Roughyeds

LUCAS Onyango (right) celebrating his try against Sheffield, has been cleared to play for the Roughyeds this weekend.

OLDHAM RL Club received a huge boost last night in the build-up to Sunday’s first league game against Swinton Lions when winger Lucas Onyango was cleared of a dangerous throw by the RFL disciplinary committee.

The Kenyan flier faced a maximum suspension of three matches for the offence with which he was charged after referee Craig Halloran had placed an incident on report near the end of Oldham’s Northern Rail Cup defeat at Hunslet.

Halloran consulted his touchjudge before brandishing the red card to dismiss Onyango, only to change his mind, recall the Oldham player and signal that he was to refer the incident to the league’s disciplinary department for further scrutiny on the match video recording.

Onyango and his club were subsequently informed that the RFL felt there was a case to answer and that the player would be charged with having made a dangerous throw in a 65th minute tackle on a Hunslet player who appeared to hit the ground head first.

Protesting his innocence all along, Onyango had the full support of the Roughyeds. He pleaded not guilty when making a personal appearance before the disciplinary panel last night, supported by club chairman Chris Hamilton.

Said Chris: “While we accepted that the Hunslet player went to ground head first, it was a two-man tackle and there was certainly no intent. The two Oldham players tried to turn him and what happened next was purely accidental.”

Onyango is free to play on Sunday when Oldham, having played their two home games in the Northern Rail Cup at Sedgley Park, return to the Whitefield venue to take on the Lions, this time in a Co-operative Championship One away game.

“We’ll have the smaller dressing room this time,” said coach Tony Benson, “but, that apart, we will gain some benefit from having played a couple of times there already this season.”

On the following Sunday, March 7, Roughyeds will welcome a BBC television crew at their home Carnegie Challenge Cup tie against Welsh club Blackwood Bulldogs.

In a regular Challenge Cup feature on their Super League Show, the BBC is following the round-by-round fortunes of a club picked at random and then transferring their attention to the club that eventually beats it.

Blackwood won at Edinburgh Eagles in round two to wrestle coverage away from the Scottish club.