Neighbours collide

Danny Yates

RUGBY LEAGUE

YOU can almost throw a rugby ball from Geoff Owen’s house in Moorside to Andy Yates’s place just across the road.

Neighbours for a few years, they’ve seen their sons Gareth (Owen) and Danny (Yates) learn their trade together at Waterhead — that renowned academy of rugby league skills and sciences — and go on to fulfil ambitions to become professionals.

Gareth (22) played all his early rugby at Peach Road as a half-back, but switched to hooker when he was 15 and signed for Salford a year later.

Danny (20) was born to be a half-back, like his father before him, and emerged from Waterhead’s conveyor belt of talent to sign for St Helens before moving on to Halifax.

Both have played in the Kingstone Press Championship this season, Yates with Halifax, Owen on loan from Salford to Sheffield Eagles.

Now, nearly 200 miles away in Middlesex, their sporting pathways will cross at senior level for the first time since they were both in Waterhead’s kindergarten, where Gareth had his first game of five-a-side rugby at the age of four.

Yates, on loan to London Skolars, will play at half-back against his home-town team on Sunday, while Owen is lined up to make his second appearance for Oldham at hooker, having joined Roughyeds from Salford on loan until the end of the season.

Both will have, pivotal roles to play in a match to be staged at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, home of Enfield Town FC (kick-off 3pm).

To read the full version of this story see the Chronicle’s E-chron digital edition or buy the newspaper.