Haven scent blood of weak Roughyeds

JASON Boults was sent off, Mark Brocklehurst was put on report and John Clough was sin-binned as Roughyeds slipped to another away defeat at Whitehaven.

The side that couldn't put a foot wrong on its travels last year can't get one right this time round, this being the Roughyeds' third league loss in three outings on the road.

They played superbly well on attack and defence to destroy derby rivals Rochdale 38-6 at the Whitebank Stadium on Good Friday, but they couldn't back it up with an encore in Cumbria three days later.

It was always going to be a tough assignment, and it was made even tougher when four players from the Good Friday side — Marcus St Hilaire, Matthew Fogarty, Chris Clarke and Andy Isherwood — were ruled out by injury.

To lose both centres and both second-row forwards caused a lot of disruption out wide and it was out on the flanks that Tony Benson's men were found to be most vulnerable.

Having restricted Rochdale to one try in 80 minutes, the Roughyeds' defences at the Recreation Ground were breached five times in the first half — and four of the five tries were created or scored by outside backs.

Centre Scott McAvoy was in sparkling form, causing havoc early on down Oldham's right side by setting up a try for his winger Craig Calvert and then scoring himself.

Calvert's speed was exploited to the full — and the way he scored his second try, when chasing a kick to dive and touch down in one movement, was in stark contrast to the visitors' unsuccessful attempt to score in similar circumstances.

Out on the other flank, Andrew Beattie and veteran Howard Hill nonchalantly carved Oldham wide open for hooker Chris Smith to finish off and score his second try.

He was to record three in total — this one on the back of sharp support play; the other two with outrageous scoots from dummy-half.

After an interval pep talk, the fireworks started for the visitors.

Brocklehurst, who found it hard to contain McAvoy early on, was determined to stand firm now whenever McAvoy or full-back Chris Benson ran at him.

He smashed into Benson, whose own momentum caused him to be 'speared' by the challenge. Players of both sides reacted; Calvert and Spencer Miller were warned for interfering; and referee Matthew Kidd placed the incident on report.

From the resultant tap penalty, Miller drove the ball in, there was another flare-up, and both Miller and Oldham's Clough were despatched to the sin-bin.

Near the end, Boults was penalised for dissent. A few minutes later, with Oldham in possession, the referee stopped play and dismissed the Oldham prop for once again speaking out of turn.

It brought the game to an unsavoury end, Oldham having conceded seven tries and scored four — two by Dave Ellison and one apiece for Neil Roden and Lucas Onyango, all converted by Carl Forber.

For the second game in a row Ellison was Oldham's stand-out player. His first try, a solo effort, was a beauty from long range.

Roden spotted a gap to score from close in and when Onyango capitalised on Brocklehurst's determination to score a third Oldham try early in the second half the visitors were in contention at 24-18.

After that, however, the game went away from them. They started to be penalised heavily and Lewis Palfrey made them pay with three penalty goals to deny Roughyeds a bonus point.