Benson’s delight at ‘good day’ for Oldham

ROUGHYEDS coach Tony Benson was a happy man after a record-breaking performance from his team in the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

Welsh side Blackwood Bulldogs were blown away 80-6 at Sedgley Park, Oldham running home 15 tries to land a place in round four of the competition. Match report on Page 32.

The Roughyeds coach (pictured above) was pleased not only with his team’s effort against the game amateurs, but also the day as a whole from a club point-of-view.

“Teams like that pose different challenges as they were absolutely unknown to us,” he said.

“The only thing I knew about them was what I was told by one of our fans before the game, that they favoured short kick-offs.

“And they must have produced about 15 of them in the game, getting the ball back on two-thirds of those occasions.

“It was good for us in that they didn’t react to certain plays as you may expect and we had to play what was in front of us.

“Credit to them, too, as they ran hard and didn’t stop for 80 minutes.

“It was a good day all-round for us. The weather was good and our support was fantastic again.

“Up in the boardroom afterwards there were players, sponsors, past players, board members and club staff all together and the vibes were really positive.”

Tonight’s draw, which includes all the Super League giants, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live from 7.30pm.

Four French teams are in the hat, with Toulouse, Limoux and Lezignan making it through to join top-flight Catalans Dragons in the draw.

Roughyeds are next in action this Friday with the switched league game against Hunslet Hawks at the South Leeds Stadium (8pm kick-off).

And they will have a ‘new’ man in the squad for that game after Ian Hodson signed for the club for a FOURTH time.

The 28-year-old back row forward, who first joined Oldham in 2005, has penned a deal that runs until the end of the season.