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by ROGER HALSTEAD ROCHDALE won 18-6 against a young Oldham side in the Reserves match at Sedgley Park, but credit must go to both teams for producing a terrific match which was played in a great spirit from start to finish. The intensity was just as good at the end as it had been at the start and full marks to the Roughyeds for giving a more experienced Hornets side a good run for their money. Both teams gave everything they had for 80 minutes. Good rugby was matched by tenacious tackling, and although Hornets conceded a raft of penalties -- mainly for technical offences -- Oldham still had a mountain of defensive work to do. They didn't help themselves at times (for example, they twice failed to put penalties into touch), but never once did they ease off in defence, and that must have been a plus for coaches John Hough and Leo Casey. Post-match stats revealed that Oldham made 119 tackles in the first-half and another 76 in the second, with second-row man Phil Jagger doing 19 tackles in the first-half alone -- a total that would compare very favourably indeed with any of the first-team statistics this season. Said Houghie: "Our commitment, yet again, was brilliant. But its frustrating that we are having to do so much tackling that we are unable to show what we can do in attack. Nevertheless, we wanted to make sure we improved on our performance at Leigh last week, and we certainly did that. Unlike last week, we played for the full 80 and I was very pleased with the lads for that." Lucas Onyango came through well in his first game for six months after a shoulder operation. He didn't get chance to show his pace on the outside, but he often went inside looking for work, both to tackle and to drive the ball out of defence. He appeared to go out of his way to make as big a contribution as he could not merely for himself and his own comeback programme, but for the sake of the team and the boys he was assisting. His post-match verdict? "I'm sore all over," he said, "but otherwise I came through okay." It is significant, of course, that in the one game Oldham have won thus far, at Featherstone, they had the services of Simeon Hoyle coming back after injury. There is no substitute for an old head in the middle of the field to give youngsters some guidance, and in this game Hornets had that guidance from the likes of Chris Hough and Sam Butterworth at half-back. Full-back Mark Brocklehurst and winger Mark Roughneen have also had senior experience as had two of the Hornets subs, Eric Johnson and Andy Gorey. The big difference between the sides was the experience provided by Hough and Butterworth, allied to the speed and elusive midfield running of Johnson But considering what Oldham were up against they did remarkably well to trail only 8-0 at half time and even better to cut the deficit to 8-6 before conceding again when Butterworth reacted swiftly to capitalise on an Oldham handlilng error and to set up a try for big prop Tom Wild. Hornets opened the scoring in the tenth minute when Craig Highton touched down Butterworth's kick into in-goal and scored a second just before half time when Roughneed got in at the corner after good work by Brocklehurst. With Alex Eyres leading the way, the Oldham forwards started to make inroads early in the second half and they were rewarded when Martin Sarsfield crashed over for a try on a flat ball from dummy half near the Hornets line. Ethan Langhorn added the goal to make it 8-6, whereupon the Roughyeds grew in confidence and began to throw the ball around impressively. Butterworth, however, was quick to cash in on a dropped pass and although he was hauled down short, the Oldham defence was stretched and Wild crashed in for a try which Roughneen goaled for a 14-6 lead. Not long afterwards Chris Hough chipped for the corner and Jamie Knight got the touchdown. To sum up this was another highly encouraging performance by a young and untried Oldham team which is coming along nicely on all fronts and which has several players who are making rapid progress, among them full-back Anthony Bingham and winger Dwayne Nelson. But they are not on their own, as Houghie and Leo will testify. Oldham: Bingham; Nelson, Wildman, Fisher, Onyango; Langhorn, Lowe; Eyres, Mansfield, W Schofield, Sarsfield, Jagger, Smith. Subs: Toft, Orwell, G Schofield, Evans. Rochdale: Brocklehrust; Lloyd, Highton, Knight, Roughneen; Butterworth, Hough; Wild, O'Brien, Sweeney, Moores, Dewhurst, Charlesworth. Subs: Gorey, Lawton, Johnson, Cookson. |
