Forward march for slick Oldham

ON THE CHARGE . . . Paddy Farnan makes the hard yards for Oldham.

RUGBY UNION:

Season’s-best performance eases relegation fears

OLDHAM RU produced their best form of the season to climb out of the relegation zone with an emphatic 42-18 win over St Benedicts.

It was in the forwards where the battle was won with Oldham’s blend of youth and experience holding the heavier Saints pack at bay in the scrum and line-out and dominating the loose play.

The young front row of Paul Wardle, Jordan McEwan and Jake Watson received splendid support from the experienced Paddy Farnan, Ross Cooper, Alan Pierre, Nick Duncan and Adam Waterhouse.

And their endeavours provided the platform for the backs to shine as Oldham scored six converted tries.

The game was only three minutes old when Oldham put down their marker.

Captain Gareth Barber set Joe Hesse on a charge from a scrum and the forwards worked the ball well for centre Mark Goodman and Farnan before the latter fed Watson to score under the posts.

St Benedicts cut their deficit with a penalty, but Oldham then scored three tries in eight minutes to go clear.

First, the backs all handled the ball in a flowing move which saw Barber go over.

Then Barber turned provider as his delicate kick was perfectly read by full-back Andy Gorey, who raced clear from the halfway line.

And the score was a healthy 28-3 when scrum-half Phil Graham spotted a gap at a 20-metre scrum and darted through to score.

Benedicts winger Lee Wood breached the Oldham line before the break.

But any real hopes of a revival were quashed soon after the restart when Barber ran the ball from his own line to release Gorey, who raced fully 70 metres for a stunning try.

Barber completed Oldham’s scoring with his second try of the game, while two more tries from the visitors removed none of the gloss from an Oldham performance which included resolute defending and inspired attacking.