Defence concern for Benson

AN 11-try thriller provided great entertainment for the fans, but served to cause coaches Tony Benson and Warren Jowitt no end of frustration.

Both were more disturbed by the tries their teams conceded than they were delighted by the ones they scored — hardly surprising in the circumstances.

In Benson’s case, his side’s magnificent fightback couldn’t conceal the fact that at one stage early in the second half Roughyeds were getting whacked 30-4.

By the end of the game Jowitt was tearing his hair out, having seen his Rams concede 24 unanswered points late in the game as Oldham came close to snatching it.

“We produced a fantastic fightback yet again,” said Benson, “but we need to look at why we are getting ourselves in a hole in the first place.

“We are good enough to win tight games like this and also the one in South Wales last weekend (a 36-36 draw), but we are not winning and that’s something we need to address.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we are getting better and that’s a plus.

“In the first half we spent too much time defending on our goal line and that was mainly because we gave away too many penalties against a big, strong side which had the benefit of the slope.

“By the end of the game we had given a side from a higher division a massive fright so we can at least take a lot of credit for that as we continue to build for the start of the league programme in a fortnight.”

Jowitt said: “Credit Oldham with a gritty fightback, but my lot fell in love with themselves after going 30-4 up and that is not acceptable.”