Cup-tied Burke to miss trip

Joe Burke

SCOTT Naylor will make at least one change to his squad for Saturday’s fifth-round Ladbrokes Challenge Cup tie at Hull KR (2pm kick-off), because prop Joe Burke is ineligible.

The Welshman played for North Wales Crusaders in the third round before he signed for Oldham so couldn’t play against amateurs Kells in the last round. He is again cup-tied this weekend.

He will be missed against the Super League side. He is a big man and, off the bench, had his best game so far in Oldham colours in the thrill-a-minute 21-20 win against Sheffield Eagles on Sunday.

Rovers coach James Webster was there to run the rule over his cup opponents following his injury-hit side’s 40-0 home defeat by Catalans Dragons last Thursday night.

Reflecting on a crowded Super League programme since Easter, Webster said after the heavy defeat by Catalans: “It was a game too far for us. The dam burst. Some of the players haven’t been in the Super League environment before because they’ve been playing for West Hull or in the under-19s.”

Oldham-lad James Greenwood played in the Rovers second-row, but the club’s latest injury victim, club captain Terry Campese, missed out with a damaged hamstring.

Danny Langtree, Danny Grimshaw and Adam Files will be back in Naylor’s plans after sitting out the Sheffield game. It remains to be seen whether dual-registration duo Liam Johnson and Tyler Dickinson will be available again after playing in Roughyeds’ last four games.

Normally a back-row forward, 18-year-old Johnson has been filling in at centre for Oldham — and doing a good job too — because Jon Ford, Tom Ashton and Jack Holmes are all injured.

Huddersfield Giants, at the foot of Super League with one win in 10, have to decide whether they will again make players available to Oldham, knowing that if they turn out at Hull they won’t be able to play for Giants in subsequent rounds of the cup.