Giants link-up set in 'Stone'

SCOTT NAYLOR . . . 'positive meetings'

OLDHAM RL Club confirmed today that they will again be dual-registration partners with Huddersfield Giants in the 2017 Kingstone Press Championship season.

It will be the third year in a row that Roughyeds have linked up with the Giants, but the first time that such a partnership has been forged since Australian coach Rick Stone succeeded Paul Anderson as boss of the Super League outfit last July.

Dual-registration legislation was introduced for the 2013 season, Scott Naylor's first as Oldham's head coach, and Roughyeds spent 2013 and 2014 in partnership with Salford Red Devils.

The rationale behind dual-reg was to allow Super League fringe players to get match experience in the Championship or League One, while strengthening their partner clubs at the same time.

Oldham's switch from Salford to Huddersfield in 2015 coincided with promotion to the Championship, whereupon Naylor's men got full value out of their dual-reg arrangement, using six Huddersfield players, who made a total of 42 appearances in Roughyeds' first season of tier-two rugby.

Tyler Dickinson (15 appearances), Liam Johnson (14), Sam Wood (five), Kruise Leeming (four), Jared Simpson (three) and Daniel McIntosh (one) all helped Roughyeds to realise their promotion dream.

'PRODUCTIVE'

Said Naylor: "Since the end of last season I've been over to Huddersfield for a few meetings with Rick (Stone) and they've all been positive and productive.

"They have a similar system to dual-reg in Australia and he's very aware of the mutual benefits to be derived from it. He's a big fan of it, in fact.

"I've every reason to believe that we will benefit from it even more than previously."

Chairman Chris Hamilton added: "We look forward to working with the Giants again and in particular with Rick, as a relative newcomer to the English game.

"We're hoping that, in terms of players who will be available to us, we'll really see the benefits.

"We had other options open to us this year in terms of partnering different clubs, but we happily plumped for the Giants because it has worked superbly for us in the past."