Improving Oldham RU see off Burnley

Oldham RUFC continued their league campaign with an impressive 36-18 victory at home against Burnley, who themselves were unbeaten to date in league fixtures.

Oldham welcomed back club captain Stuart Brennan following a calf injury picked up pre-season.

Oldham were hoping to keep the “Manor Park Fortress” 100% home wins intact for this season.

Oldham, of late, have been slow out of the blocks and that trend continued as Burnley took an early lead as they pounced onto some turnover ball from the home side early on as Oldham tried to over play in their own half.

The Burnley winger went over in the right corner to give them a 5-0 lead.

Oldham came straight back into the game, however, and had a penalty on the Burnley line however opted to scrummage rather than take the easy three points.

Whilst Oldham attempted to play, Burnley turned the ball over and cleared their lines.

The home side’s decision to go for the try not paying off.

Alex Jobson then got Oldham onto the board a few moments later with Burnley again giving a penalty away at the ruck on their own 10 metre line.

Jobson stepped up and nailed the kick to bring it back to 5-3 in the visitors favour.

The game was nip and tuck in these early exchanges with a further penalty for each side being kicked, again Jobson doing the business for Oldham and after 20 minutes Burnley still edged the scoreboard at 8-6.

Oldham then began to get some hold on the game and their tactical use of the boot to turn Burnley paid off.

Corey Kelly chased and gathered a kick from Tom Davies to feed Brennan who had tracked well to score under the posts.

Jobson converted and Oldham led 13-8.

Jobson followed the captain and was next to touch down behind the whitewash as Oldham piled the pressure on again following good work from Kelly, on the right, to again feed inside to Jobson and the fullback glided in and converted his own try to take Oldham 20-8 in front.

Oldham’s first up defence held firm on a number of occasions as the hosts attempted to come back into the game.

The scrum back five of Brennan, Josh Semple, Jack Taylor, Isaac Dobbs and Luke Ferrier were working overtime to cut down the Burnley runners.

Oldham’s knack of winning defensive turnovers were on show with Davies again excelling in this area for the home team.

With no further score up to the half Oldham turned in the lead with the slope in their favour in the second half.

A Jobson penalty got the scoreboard going again for Oldham in the first few minutes of the second half to take the score to 23-8 and Oldham looked ready to cut loose.

However, in the past few weeks Oldham have had a 10-15 minute period where they seem to switch off and let the opposition back in.

This again was the case as Burnley again scored in the right corner through their winger and also added a penalty a few moments later to get themselves back into the game at 23-16.

With the visitors getting their tails up Oldham needed to answer immediately or risk the visitors taking momentum away from them.

From the restart of the penalty kick a ruck was formed and as the Burnley standoff attempted to clear his lines the Oldham captain Brennan stepped up to charge the kick down and scoop up the ball to score again under the posts.

Jobson converted to put Oldham 30-18 up.

To be fair to Burnley they attempted to play but Oldham’s defence scrambled well at times but held firm and when Oldham gained possession they played in the Burnley half and won a further two penalties that Jobson converted to put Oldham 36-18 in the lead in the closing stages.

With the game closing out Burnley were throwing everything at Oldham and an unfortunate injury to Oldham’s captain Brennan happened as he tackled a Burnley opponent and halted play with four minutes to go.

A sad end for the skipper on his return especially having scored two tries and putting in a galvanising performance at number eight for the home team.

Some great performances for Oldham with the pack all battling hard against a good Burnley scrummage.

The half backs Louis Fitton and Jordan McEwan controlled the game well for Oldham.

However with a try, three conversions and five penalty goals, Alex Jobson was Oldham’s man of the match.

At time of writing the Oldham captain is still under treatment at Oldham Hospital.

Everyone at the club hopes for a speedy recovery and sends their best wishes.

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