Rooney the destroyer

Oldham's Alex Thompson tries to find way through.

Whitehaven 42, Oldham 20
THERE can be no more talk of promotion after this, but Oldham at least went down fighting.

To put things into perspective there is no way they would have gone three months, nine league games or 12 hours of rugby without posting a win if they had at any time played as well as they did at the Recreation Ground yesterday.

It would be stretching a point to say they deserved to win, but they certainly didn’t deserve to lose by 22 points, having conceded four tries direct from kicks — one a fluke and another that looked offside.

Jamie Rooney, Whitehaven’s man of the moment, quickly kicked two conversions to chalk up 3,000 career points and then went on to destroy the Roughyeds with a classical display at stand-off half.

Rooney was the big difference between the sides. He was key to each of the Cumbrians’ four first-half tries and then he set up their sixth of seven late in the second half when Oldham were losing their way a little.

But no-one could fault Oldham’s individual or collective effort. Every man in the side gave his best.

Oldham began strongly, completing seven of their first nine sets and taking the lead with a superb try in the fifth minute.

The packs cancelled each other out in the early stages, but ’Haven had the X Factor in the shape of Rooney.


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