Cup delight for Oldham RU

Oldham welcomed Hemsworth RUFC to Manor Park for Saturday's RFU National Cup fixture, and eventually prevailed 39-10.

Hemsworth who play in Yorkshire Counties Level 3 had won both of their opening league games scoring over 40 points in both fixtures so a possible high scoring game was a possibility.

Oldham gave a first team debut to Harvey Ward on the bench having worked hard in the preseason.

With the rain beating down what seemed like horizontally, Triage Terrace was full of umbrellas for those who braved to watch the game from outside the clubhouse.

Oldham set off with the wind at there backs and had a fixed game plan in the conditions of playing in the opposition half and turning them at every opportunity.

This seemed to work well as from the kick off Oldham kicked long and then found joy in the Hemsworth half winning a penalty.

Alex Jobson did the honours slotting the penalty over giving Oldham a 3-0 lead.

The first try of the afternoon came around the ten minute mark with Oldham breaking into the Hemsworth 22 with a driving maul from a line out.

After working a couple of short runs with the forwards Lewis Ward saw a gap in the Hemsworth defence at the ruck to dive over to give Oldham a further lead with Jobson hitting the post with the conversion Oldham led 8-0.

Oldham followed the game plan and again played down in the Hemsworth half whenever they had the chance to territorially dominate the opposition with their kicking game.

It was from one of these kicks that flying winger Reece Blakley scored Oldham’s second try of the afternoon.

A long kick over the top from the Oldham 22 area landed in the Hemsworth 22 and with the away teams back three being slow to get to the ball, Blakley sprinted through beating all of the defenders to kick the ball into the in goal area and touch it down to take Oldham’s lead to 13-0 with the try being unconverted.

Elliot Scanlon Wells was next on the scoresheet for Oldham after the backline had gone down the right hand side and had been stopped just short of the Hemsworth line.

Scanlon Wells ran a nice arcing line to take the pass from Lewis Ward to barrel over, with Jobson adding the conversion bringing Oldham’s lead to 20.

From the kick off from Hemsworth came the try of the day in what was atrocious conditions a full length try worthy of any social media highlight reel.

Isaac Dobbs took the catch from the kick off and returned the ball cutting through the would be defence to then side step a Hemsworth back before eventually being brought down on the opposition ten metre line.

Quick ball from Lewis Ward fed a couple of runners and then to Captain Tom Davies who had a two on one with Jordan McEwan and with the perfectly timed pass, Oldham had gone the full length to score.

McEwan dotting down for the try with Jobson converting to end the first half with Oldham leading Hemsworth 27-0

Oldham now needed to play into the wind in the second half with the rain still falling at a rate of knots.

Hemsworth answered straight away with two tries which came from some suspect tackling from the home side allowing Hemsworth to score on Oldham’s left edge.

Both tries within the space of the opening ten minutes of the second half gave the away side some hope of  a possible comeback.

Oldham reset and went back to what had served them well in the first half to begin to play some rugby again.

Some slick hands following a line out, put Oldham on the Hemsworth line only for a knock on to stop Oldham scoring which gave Hemsworth a scrum on their 5 metre line.

Up stepped the Oldham pack who had to be fair, had the better of the scrums for most of the afternoon, led by the catwalk Esque trio of Chris Shaw, Dean McEwan and the returning Paul Wardle, to emphatically shove the Hemsworth scrum backwards over their line, securing the ball against the head for Issac Dobbs to touch down and with Jobson converting Oldham took their lead to 34-10

With the rain continuing to fall at an emphatic rate some handling errors started to creep in for both sides although to be fair to Hemsworth they never gave up and continued to give as good as they got from Oldham.

However, the final try of the afternoon went to the home side as Lewis Ward scored again to make it a brace as from a clearance kick from Hemsworth he took the ball on the ten metre line and give Rob Froggatt a flat pass for the rampaging number 8 to go into the Hemsworth 22 and Ward followed to receive the return pass to shimmy past the winger and then side step the full back to score.

With the conversion missed the final score was 39-10 in Oldham’s favour.

It was a pleasing day for the coaching staff with Oldham following structure and completing a well-executed game plan.

Some notable performances for Oldham.

Jack Taylor won all of his ball and most of the oppositions in the lineout.

Froggatt’s carrying in open play, the Oldham front 8 as a whole and Jordan McEwan steadying the game at fly half, but Oldham’s man of the match as voted by this weeks opposition was skipper and inside centre Tom Davies, whose tactfully astute kicking paved the way for Oldham’s success.

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