Ince returns to Roughyeds for extended stay

Ryan Ince did play twice for the club back in March.

OLDHAM Rugby League Club is "excited" by the signing of Leigh Centurions and former Widnes Vikings winger Ryan Ince, who played two Betfred Championship games on loan for Roughyeds last March.

Ince (24) has signed a one-year deal to become Oldham's 26th player for 2021, and its 12th new boy.

Across 2017 and 2018, he ran in 11 Super League tries in 18 appearances for Widnes and followed up in 2019 with 19 tries in 22 games for the Vikings, including 17 in 18 Betfred Championship games.

Delighted Oldham coach Matt Diskin said: "Ryan is quality. I'm excited by his capture. We were impressed when he played on loan for us against Bradford and Dewsbury in March. He has pedigree and experience and he's a good person too.

"He can play centre as well, so he gives us options. Ryan is a big signing."

A Widnes lad, Ince played for his local Moorfield community club as a boy before joining the Vikings' youth set-up and working his way up, via the Academy, to the first team.

While developing at Widnes, he had spells on dual-reg with Whitehaven, Hunslet and North Wales Crusaders, producing overall career stats of 38 tries in 72 games, including 31 in 46 for Widnes.

Last year, he helped the Vikings to get to Wembley for the inaugural final of the 1895 Cup, playing in a 22-16 home win against Featherstone and in a brilliant 12-8 semi-final victory at Leigh, but missing out when the Vikings lost to Sheffield Eagles in the final at Wembley.

Within a few weeks of playing in the side that dumped Leigh out of the 1895 Cup, Ince joined the Centurions in a move which Leigh boss John Duffy described as a "massive coup" while and lauding Ince as a winger of Super League quality.

He played in Leigh's two 2020 pre-season games against Salford and Wigan, but he wasn't in the Centurions' early-season Championship games and he was soon on his way to Oldham on a month's loan, playing on the right wing against Bradford and Dewsbury and scoring , against the Rams.

Said Ince: "I enjoyed my time at Oldham and that had a big bearing on my decision to sign. Everyone at the club, including the other lads and the fans, made me feel welcome."

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