Owen highlights enormity of task

Gareth Owen . . . inside track on Sheffield Eagles.

GARETH Owen has first-hand knowledge of what lies in store for Oldham at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster on Sunday.

The Roughyeds hooker, then a Salford Red Devils player, turned out in 15 games for Sheffield Eagles on loan last season, 12 of them off the bench, and scored six tries.

Having made 36 Super League appearances for Salford – nine fewer than his current Oldham team mate Adam Neal – 22-year-old Owen coped comfortably with Championship rugby in an Eagles side that finished fifth.

What he found difficult to deal with was “belonging” to two clubs 75 miles apart and being expected to meet the demands of each.

“I was training full time at Salford, then dashing over to Sheffield to train with them, often leaving home at 7am and getting back at 9.30pm,” he said.

“In the end it got too much. My body was in bits and it started to affect how I played, so that’s how I got the move to Oldham on loan before I got my release from Salford and signed for my home-town team on a permanent basis.

“Things have gone fantastically well so far this season, but we face a very tough task on Sunday and we will be going over there to have a real dig.”

Eagles are third in the Championship, with four wins from five games.

Added Owen: “They’ll be fielding a very similar side to the one I played in, and it’s no secret that they are strong and mobile all over the park.

“I’ve still got mates over there and it will be good to meet up with them again – once the tie is over.”

Kyle Briggs and Cory Aston, the halves, are key players for Eagles, but Owen picks out three men from the other side of the world as the real stars – Quentin Laulu-Togagae, Menzie Yere and Misi Taulapapa.

Laulu-Togagae is a 30-year-old full-back and former Samoan international who is in his fifth season with the Eagles.

Yere (31) is a centre from Papua New Guinea and another long-serving Sheffield player, who starred in the 2008 World Cup.

Taulapapa (33), Auckland-born, joined Eagles in 2010 as a centre after playing in the NRL for New Zealand Warriors and Cronulla Sharks.

He figured at loose forward in his side’s 14-12 win at Workington last Sunday.