Oldham punished for poor discipline

RUGBY UNION:

North Manchester 13, Oldham 10
OLDHAM surrendered a 10-point lead in their first North Lancashire Division One match for three weeks.

They returned to their old habits of poor discipline and the concession of too many soft penalties.

Oldham were also guilty of a lack of co-ordination at the line-out and scrum, while their forwards were outgunned by a much heavier and more experienced home pack.

This meant that Oldham were without the ball for long periods and even though the backs looked dangerous when in possession, their desire to keep the ball alive late in the game worked against them via turnovers.

North Manchester dictated the early play, but Oldham’s defence stood firm and the visitors went down the other end to open the scoring in the 10th minute.

The ball was moved quickly along the backs to wing Ryan North, who passed back inside to Stephen Hastings.

He chipped it over the home defence, allowing North to gather and score a try which was converted by Josh Brown.

Oldham stretched their lead to 10 points with a Brown penalty, but North Manchester fought back well and scored through centre Kevin Nunn.

Neil Hyman converted the try and then kicked a penalty to bring the scores level at half-time.

Oldham had missed the boat and five minutes after the interval a second Hyman penalty gave the hosts a lead they were never to surrender and a boring second half produced no further points.

Oldham will be looking to bounce back when they entertain Birchfield at Manor Park on Saturday (2.15pm).