Oldham hit brick wall

Photo: Paul Sterritt

IT TAKES THREE . . . to stop Oldham’s Jack Spencer, who is halted in his tracks by the Broncos.

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OLDHAM 0, LONDON BRONCOS 22
LONDON’S full-time professionals soaked up everything Oldham chucked at them in the first half before flexing their muscles to dump the part-timers on their backsides.

For 50 minutes or so, Scott Naylor’s men lived with opposition, who have spent heavily this year to go flat out for a return to Super League. But they couldn’t sustain it for 80 minutes and in the end Broncos finished comfortable 22-0 victors.

Disappointed though they will be to lose their opening Championship game, Oldham can be heartened by their first-half performance; by the fact that only four of the 12 teams in the division are fully professional; and by the certain knowledge that not all of them will defend as brilliantly as Broncos did here.

Broncos gave a first-half master class in the art of goal-line defence. They will face faster, stronger, slicker and more creative opponents than Oldham in pursuit of their Super League ambitions. Nevertheless, they had an insatiable appetite for keeping their try line intact after conceding 34 unanswered points in a warm-up at Dewsbury the week before.

Roughyeds got the backlash. That was evident from the post-game reaction of Aussie boss Andrew Henderson, who was just as thrilled as Naylor was when Oldham ‘nilled’ Barrow at Craven Park a fortnight ago.

The overwhelming difference between that game and this in terms of intensity, physicality, speed, skill and sheer brute strength was there for all to see.

London’s front-row men, especially Nick Slyney, made the yards easier than Oldham’s middle unit, which was soon handicapped by the loss of Jack Spencer for running repairs to a gash above an eye.

Man for man, Broncos forwards looked stronger, more physical and more likely to bump off the first tackle and get their side on the front foot.

Out wide they had a centre in former NRL regular Nathan Stapleton who looked a class apart and a winger, Rhys Williams, who proved as difficult to tackle as his colleagues in the forwards.

To counter this threat Oldham had to be plucky, totally committed and determined to show their valour against all the odds. That was never in question.

It’s reasonable to conclude also that they were assisted to no small extent by London’s irritating habit of lying-on in the tackle or deliberately slowing down the ruck – infringements penalised NINE times by referee Mike Woodhead before he issued a team warning shortly before half-time.

He didn’t shirk from punishing the offenders, giving Oldham back-to-back sets and allowing them to almost set up base camp in the Broncos 20-metre zone.

Factor in the home side’s grubber kicking into the in-goal, which earned four more repetitive sets, and you get the picture of how comprehensively Roughyeds dictated position in the first 40 minutes.

But no matter how hard they tried they couldn’t crack open a rigid defensive barrier, not down the middle, not via Danny Langtree on the right and Josh Crowley on the left, and not wider out on the flanks.

Langtree and Crowley were once again the side’s most penetrative runners, but movement of the ball to them was often laboured, especially when passing left to right trying to find time and space for Langtree to work his magic, or for Richard Lepori to link with the attacking line and enjoy space.

Lepori’s work rate and enthusiasm for clearing his own quarter was exemplary – and he also had the distinction of saving a certain try with a stunning, last-gasp cover tackle on the classy Stapleton.

Oldham went behind against the run of play when prop Slyney charged for the Oldham line and was tackled short. Andy Ackers pushed off a challenge and crashed in from dummy half for an unconverted try.

Next, Stapleton capitalised on speedy, right-to-left passing to shake his hips, step Tom Ashton and hit full throttle. He looked a certain scorer until ‘Lippy’ forced him to err with an impeccably-timed challenge just short of the line.

It remained 0-4 at half-time, but Oldham’s hopes of coming from behind to win were quickly dashed when Broncos sub Jack Bussey. winger Iliess Macani and full-back Ben Hellewell all scored tries, converted by Naiqama.

Bussey saw off two or three attempted tackles before crashing over, then it was he who opted for a wide, cut-out pass to the right to squeeze in Macani.

Finally, Hellewell rolled over the line in Lepori’s challenge to score from a cross-kick by Joe Keys.