Timely tonic for the rain men

TWO FOR COMPANY . . . Luke Stenchion takes a couple of South Wales Scorpions players with him as he surges forward.

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Oldham 35, South Wales 18
Forwards excel as Roughyeds get the job done
NOT PERFECT by a long stretch . . . but so much better. That is the verdict on the Roughyeds’ fifth win of the season in Co-operative Championship One — one which gives Tony Benson’s men a major boost in the quest for a prime play-off spot.

Driven by the forward pack in rainy, muddy and downright foul conditions, scrum-half Jamie Dallimore scored two tries and landed a late drop goal on his league debut to showcase his evident potential.

Full-back Ben Heaton also crossed twice, the second effort an excellent prepared move from a scrum, while of the forwards Dave Ellison and Jason Boults stood out on a day not made for flowing, expansive rugby league.

In front of 514 hardy spectators, Oldham had to be patient in pulling away from the Welsh side, even though the home team enjoyed much the better of the game in terms of creating attacking pressure.

Once or twice, defensive chinks of the sort which contributed to the previous week’s 30-0 crushing at Doncaster were apparent.

The Scorpions’ first try from hooker Steve Parry saw him get to the line far too easily, while Boults will have endured a sleepless night after a wild pass was picked up by Jamie Murphy, who surged home to level the scores in the second period.

Overall, though, inconsistent Oldham were more about the level of performance that had pushed Swinton so hard a fortnight earlier.

And with a kinder-looking set of fixtures coming up, a gradual building process is the key from here on in to the end of the campaign.

After Parry had side-stepped his way past some powder-puff defence inside the first two minutes, the home team enjoyed a solid spell of heavy pressure playing up the slope.

But it wasn’t until midway through the half that the Welsh defence buckled. Carl Forber sent forward a hopeful kick into centre-field on the last tackle and Dallimore was onto it like a flash.

Nipping in and hacking the ball forward, the 22-year-old dived on top of it to register his first try in professional rugby, Forber completing the formalities to pull the game level.

Three minutes later, the same player was at it again. This time, he threw a dummy close to the line as Ellison prepared to power on to a short ball, holding on and twisting over the whitewash for a neat, clever score.

Namesake Neil Dallimore landed on the end of a short pass to crash over, with Lewis Reece’s second successful kick again drawing the game back to 12-12.

But Oldham were the better side and had a half-time lead to show for their ascendancy thanks to Heaton running a scything line touch down off Paul Noone’s reverse pass.

Replacement hooker John Clough thought he had extended the advantage after the break and so did the crowd assembled behind the goal.

Referee Dave Merrick disagreed that Clough had touched down amid a melee of players, though, and after Murphy had raced in the Roughyeds could well have felt this was not to be their day.

However, only two minutes later Dallimore’s well-timed short ball sent big Ben Wood streaking home on the left flank, soon to be followed by Marcus St Hilaire’s walk-in try off a Forber pass.

The half-back missed his conversion for the first time but landed a harder effort 12 minutes from full-time after Heaton’s sweetly-worked try.

And Dallimore added the icing to the cake by clipping home a one-pointer with the game into its final few seconds.