Heaton gets Oldham deal

FORMER Widnes, Halifax and Swinton prop Danny Heaton is to kick-start his career with Oldham.

Aged 30, he plans to weigh in at 17 stones by the time he starts playing for the Roughyeds early next year.

He tips the scales now at 18st 7lbs, but after a full season out of the game he says he can easily shed surplus pounds over the next three or four months.

"I need to trim down," he said. "But I don't want to go below 17 stones because weight and bulk are features of my game.

"Props peak somewhere between the ages of 27 and 33. That's when they are at their strongest and also at their most knowledgeable."

Heaton, who has signed a one-year contract, is the first of Tony Benson's 2012 newcomers – an experienced heavyweight who will be expected to provide the pack with an old head and to beef up the front row.

Warrington-born, he began his rugby career with the Wolves where he spent two years in the reserves.

He then had two seasons at Swinton, one at Widnes and two at Halifax before he went back to Swinton for the 2009 and 2010 campaigns. At the end of the 2010 season he decided to have a break.

Explaining why, he said: "I wasn't enjoying my rugby any more. I had lost the appetite for it. Tony (Benson) rang me about joining Oldham back then, but I wasn't ready to sign for another pro club.

"I enjoyed the break, but then I had a game for Warrington amateurs Woolston, my old club, and got the itch back again.

"That's when I decided to see if Tony was still interested in signing me and, glad to say, he was.

"Now, I can't wait to get cracking. Knocks and niggling injuries are long gone.”

An electrician by trade, he believes he can play as well in the second row as he can at prop.

Heaton was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he admitted assaulting his girlfriend in 2008.

Of the 11 players who have signed for the Roughyeds for next year, there are only two props so far – Heaton and Liam Gilchrist.

Dave Ellison, who missed the second half of last season after dislocating an elbow, is named in the 2011 Co-operative Championship One all-stars team.