Captain Fantastic

IT WAS a case of captain fantastic as Gareth Barber was the inspiration behind Oldham RUFC’s nail-biting 27-25 victory at home to Workington in North Lancs/Cumbria division.

The former Roughyeds stand-off scored two tries and was the heartbeat of the team’s display.

Barber linked up with well with young scrum-half Matty Collins while centres Michael Ward and Andy Gorey and full-back Mark Goodman also excelled.

Amazingly for such a high-scoring game, it look 27 minutes for the deadlock to be broken when Oldham made a break from a lineout with Barber scoring and Goodman converting.
Workington hit back through a Dion Seath try and Kevin Harper penalty to edge 8-7 ahead.

But in first half stoppage time came a try from Gorey which followed a looped move from a scrum involving Barber and Gorey and which was converted by Goodman as Oldham finished 14-8 ahead.

There was a further twist soon after the restart when Workington went into an 18-14 lead through a Dominic O’Connor try, conversion and penalty from Harper.

In this see-saw clash, Oldham were soon back ahead after they won a lineout and played the ball along the backs with full-back Goodman bursting through to score in the corner.

Barber then scored a second try as he scythed through the Workington defence and when Goodman kicked a penalty it looked over as Oldham held a sizeable 27-18 advantage after 67 minutes.

There was to be another turn, however, as in the last minute Workington’s Johnny Howarth scored in the corner with Harper adding the conversion from the touchline.

That reduced the deficit to only two points as Oldham had to survive a nervous four minutes of injury time before securing a valuable victory