Classy Rovers a bridge too far

Photo: Dave Murgatroyd

TRY TIME: Powerful forward Sadiq Adebiyi crashes over the line to score for Oldham

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FEATHERSTONE noted what had happened to Toulouse at Bower Fold seven days earlier and they came well prepared and determined it wasn't going to happen to them.

While the currently rudderless French side's top-four finish now looks in jeopardy, there would be no such anxieties for Rovers if they succeeded where Olympique had failed.

To beat Oldham and thus seal their place in the Middle 8s, with the exciting opportunities that opens up for them, would largely define their 2017 season.

PRIZE

With such a massive prize at their fingertips, there would be little chance of injury-hit Roughyeds turning the form book upside down for the second time in eight days.

They tried, oh how they tried, but this time an iron will, an insatiable appetite for hard work and a willingness to go toe to toe with bigger and far more experienced opponents were not enough to spring a surprise.

Ten senior men (nine injured, one suspended) watched from the stand as a side containing three young players on loan and two more on dual-reg, the maximum five, did their utmost to bridge the gap in class and know-how.

The big difference between last week and this was not so much down to what Oldham did differently, but down to how much better Featherstone were when compared with the Frenchmen.

Oldham's uphill battle wasn't helped either when Danny Langtree, who had been fighting to beat an arm injury all week, was forced to admit defeat with only 27 minutes on the clock.

He went off, never to return, only four minutes before the explosive Michael Ward went within a whisker of scoring under the sticks only to have the ball ripped out of his grasp in a two-man tackle as he crossed the line.

He got a penalty, but claims for a penalty try were waved away. It begged the question: if a penalty try isn't to be awarded in those circumstances when will it be awarded?

In the event, Roughyeds maintained the pressure and were rewarded when replacement hooker Matty Wilkinson went blind-side from dummy half and squeezed over in the corner.

It was a determined response by Oldham to a Rovers salvo of three tries in 10 minutes towards the end of the first quarter.

Roughyeds were on top in the first 10 minutes, but they couldn't bust open a tough, disciplined and well organised Rovers defensive screen.

The visitors finally broke out of defence to force an Oldham drop-out and Roughyeds hardly saw the ball again before finding themselves 16-0 down.

Wildie's pass put Hardcastle over on Oldham's left edge and Ian Hardman kicked the goal for a 6-0 lead.

ROARED

Rovers immediately roared forward again on the back of a penalty and this time Michael Knowles hit a gap to set up a try for centre Chris Ulugia.

Lockwood scored next after wriggling out of a poor tackle, but Oldham recovered and kept themselves in the game with the Wilkinson try, followed by stout defending before half-time.

Naylor's men needed to score first after the break, but only two minutes had elapsed when Ian Hardman broke up the middle and the pressure ended with Scott Turner scoring wide out after more good work by man-of-the-match Michael Knowles, the Rovers pacy second-rower.

A Thackeray clanger and a Hewitt 40/20 kept Oldham in the ascendancy, but they couldn't breach Rovers' defensive ramparts and, true to form, the visitors took play to the other end and increased their lead when Luke Briscoe got over in the right-hand corner.

Trailing 26-4, Oldham finished well with late tries by Sadiq Adebiyi and George Tyson, either side of a sixth Rovers try by Thackeray.

Tyson, Ward and Adebiyi were Oldham's strongest threesome going forward, the young Londoner scoring his first try for Roughyeds when he crashed over on a good ball from Kenny Hughes.

Tyson had a running battle with Ulugia and the Oldham man had the last laugh when he picked up a loose ball, off Luke Adamson, to crash over.