Young guns set for home debuts

OLDHAM RL boss Tony Benson has confirmed that on-loan Leeds Rhinos youngsters Callum Casey and Danny Bravo will make their home debuts against high-flying Whitehaven at Whitebank on Sunday (3pm).

Benson is playing it cagey, so much so that he has announced his 20-man squad in alphabetical rather than positional order, but the two 21-year-olds from the Rhinos’ conveyor belt of up-and-coming talent will definitely figure in the 17.

At Gateshead last Sunday, Bravo played the full game in the second-row, while Casey made his bow off the bench and adopted the role of a midfield link in the style of a third half-back or an old-fashioned ball-playing loose-forward.

“He’s a very gifted player, no doubt about that,” said club skipper Neil Roden. “He sent in John Clough for a first-half try with a pass that had class written all over it.

“It was good to have a talent like that in the middle of the field, but I’ve got to admit that it seemed strange to think I used to be in the same Oldham team as his dad Leo 10 years ago. We were both in the 2001 Grand Final team, Leo at prop and I was at scrum-half.”

Benson has given a vote of confidence to the squad that won 52-16 in the North-East, adding only Valu Bentley and Ben Wood to the 17 who played plus Michael Ward, who travelled as reserve.

The 20 will be cut to 17 and a reserve at training tomorrow.

Squad: Bentley, Boults, Bravo, Brocklehurst, Casey, Clough, Ellison, Fogarty, Forber, Heaton, Isherwood, McCully, Noone, Robinson, M Roden, N Roden, Stenchion, Sutton, Ward, Wood.




ROUGHYEDS reserves, in third place, play leaders Widnes Vikings away tomorrow (2.30pm).



The 20-man squad includes prop Tom Wood-Hulme, who is back after three months out with a

broken hand.