Oldham grafters see off Hutton

Oldham's Jack Taylor wins line-out ball.

RUGBY UNION

OLDHAM’S first team shrugged off horrendous conditions as they won their fourth straight North Lancashire Division One game against Hutton.

Following some unforgiving weather, credit must go to groundsman Alan Hollingsworth for getting the match played.

With the strong wind at their backs Oldham couldn’t keep possession and made several handling mistakes, which allowed Hutton to pressurise the home pack into giving away a penalty after five minutes.

Hutton put the ball on the Oldham five-metre line, won the line-out and drove forward at a rate of knots for Bradley Horton to score an unconverted try.

Oldham hit back though, with Phil Conroy quick on the ball.

He kicked on twice into the Hutton half before diving on the ball to score, and the sure-footed Gareth Barber was successful with a difficult kick to make it 7-5 after 15 minutes.

After 22 minutes Barber was quick off the mark, kicking through from inside the Hutton half and outpacing the cover to score near the posts. He converted to make the score 14-5.

Hutton hit back quickly and were awarded a penalty for a high tackle on Oldham’s 22 and Ben Torbutt made sure of the points.

It was Hutton who were to score next.

The ball was recycled quickly across their line for full-back Adam Stubbs to score wide out despite a desperate tackle by Rob Froggatt. Torbutt missed the conversion, taking Oldham into a half-time lead of 14-13.

After the restart the ball came Oldham’s way but the referee awarded a penalty for offside.

Torbutt converted to take Hutton into the lead.

Oldham were not going to let Hutton run away with this game though, and Conroy outpaced his winger on the outside to run the ball around to score under the posts.

Barber converted to put Oldham in front 21-16.

Jack Taylor was Oldham’s man of the match thanks to a classy showing in difficult conditions.

Guy Lovgreen’s side are next in action on Saturday.

They are set to travel to fourth-placed St Edwards Old Boys.

THE Manor Park side’s first team were the only one to play last weekend as all the club’s other matches were postponed.