No spark, no cohesion no points

Luke Stention takes on the Dons’ defence

Doncaster 30, Oldham 0
ATTACKING flair and concentration at key moments were conspicuous by their absence as the Roughyeds limped to an abject, and seventh, defeat of what is turning into a dreadful Co-operative Championship One season.

Especially arriving straight after one of the finest performances of 2011 — albeit in a loss to unbeaten table-toppers Swinton — the hope was that Tony Benson’s side could maintain their momentum and claim three points at the Keepmoat Stadium.

Sadly, though, such an eventuality never looked likely. From a solid opening, the visitors fell away and were well-beaten in every aspect of the game.

Two moments of inspiration helped the Dons take a two-try lead into the interval after an opening half of rugby in which Oldham only threatened to cross the line once, Paul Noone falling a yard short while looking in vain for support on his shoulder for an offload.

Things only got worse in the second half. Struggling for inspiration and cohesion moving forward, the feeling was that the Roughyeds could have played all night and still wouldn’t have managed to bag a try.

Doncaster, on the other hand, managed to claim three more. Ex-Rochdale centre Chris Spurr benefited from some very generous defence to claim a hat-trick.

For Oldham, few players emerged from the game with too much credit.

Among those was winger Shaun Robinson, whose speed, footwork and determination impressed again, full-back Ben Heaton and loose forward Martin Roden, who got through a bucket-load of work.

Injuries have been a constant and hugely detrimental factor in Roughyeds’ misfortunes this campaign and two more were added to the tally on a dismal afternoon for Benson and his troops.

Heaton hurt ribs in making a try-saving tackle in the second half and stand-off Neil Roden joined him on the sidelines for the final quarter of the game after suffering concussion as the Dons piled forward.

Such was the hosts’ dominance in this ‘nilling’, though, had the pair stayed intact it was difficult to envisage Oldham threatening to come back into the contest.

This fourth loss in the last five matches didn’t start too badly from the visitors’ perspective.

With Marcus St Hilaire back to give extra solidity to the centres, both sides forced a pair of drop-outs with clever kicking, and inside that period came Noone’s close shave.

Doncaster registered their first try on the quarter-hour. Some sparkling handling and offloading saw Tony Miller’s team rampage downfield and from left to right.

Two tackles after the surge, stand-off Scott Spaven spun out of a challenge to plonk the ball over the line. The same player converted his try and later embellished all four other scores, blotting his copybook only by pulling a fairly straightforward penalty attempt wide of the uprights when the score was at 18-0.

Impressive prop forward Adam Scott showed good pace to make 60 metres on an interception as Oldham enjoyed a rare foray into good territory.

And again thanks to the pace of the attack, Spurr bust a tackle on the left flank to cross the line after 21 minutes.

The Dons bombed two further chances to increase their lead before half-time and one of the culprits was Craig Lawton, a player who enjoyed a brief spell with Oldham two years ago.

A set of silly penalties didn’t help the cause and when Neil Roden failed to find touch after his side were awarded a penalty. It summed up the state of the performance.

A dusty playing surfaced was given the sprinkler system at half-time. Oldham could have done with a cold shower.

Luke Sutton threatened as Carl Forber’s bomb forced a knock-on early in the second period and Robinson glided past at least four men with a left-to-right sprint forward. While for the Dons such moments of inspiration had led to tries, on this occasion Forber spilled the ball immediately afterwards.

Gareth Potts had his try chalked off for a forward pass and Heaton hurt himself in holding up Scott as the big forward went between the posts and over the line.

A minor commotion on the touchline regarding some interchange confusion caused by Heaton’s injury departure seemed to affect the Roughyeds’ concentration.

And Dean Colton powered his way in from a Spurr pass, leaving Neil Roden injured in his wake, to score an important try which helped the Dons to an 18-0 lead after 55 minutes.

A back line reshuffle took place to cater for the gaps left by Heaton and Roden.

It didn’t help Oldham, who conceded a pair of poor late scores to the joyous Spurr.