‘It’s all about us’

SCOTT NAYLOR

SCOTT Naylor has told his Oldham RL players to stop worrying about Warrington and their Super League stars and, instead, to concentrate on getting their own game right.


“It’s all about us,” said the Roughyeds coach, speaking ahead of tomorrow’s sixth-round Ladbrokes Challenge Cup clash at Bower Fold, Stalybridge (3pm kick-off).

“If we concern ourselves too much with what Warrington will do or might do we could easily forget about what we should be doing and how we should be playing.

“We've got to play our own game, do the best we can and see what happens.”

Looking forward to “a great day for the club”, the former Challenge Cup winner hoped his players would enjoy the occasion and he hoped supporters would enjoy their brand of rugby.

He added: “I would be disappointed if Oldham people didn’t turn out in numbers to support a set of lads who deserve to have the backing of the town’s rugby community.

“To win at Hull KR in the last round was phenomenal, but we’ve also come up a division and we’ve still won four of our six home games in the Championship.

‘good record’
“We play good rugby and we’ve got a good record at Bower Fold.”

Winger Jamel Chisholm, who has missed the last two games after suffering a rib injury at Hull KR, has been cleared to return to the side.

Liam Thompson also got a thumbs-up from the club’s medical team after treatment on a dead leg.

Rugbyleague.com — a specialist web site — has placed Oldham’s fifth-round win at Hull KR in the top five Challenge Cup shocks in the past 16 years.

Naylor won’t finalise his team until later, but Joe Burke is cup-tied and fellow prop Jack Spencer (broken hand) is the latest addition to a casualty list which includes Craig Briscoe, Tom Ashton, Jon Ford and Danny Langtree.

Of the strength of the Super League leaders, Naylor said: “They’re the most complete rugby league side I’ve seen for a long time. You watch them play and you feel they won’t lose another game.”

Warrington have named a 19-man squad which shows only four changes from the one that thumped Wigan Warriors 40-10 the other night.

Injury victims Matty Russell, Ryan Atkins, Jack Hughes and Ben Westwood miss out, to be replaced by Gene Ormsby (back from a loan spell at Huddersfield) and three young players, one of whom, Morgan Smith (18) will be given his debut at half-back.

Aussie Test ace Kurt Gidley heads a panel of big-name players, including Chris Hill, Stefan Ratchford and Fijian World Cup prop Ashton Sims.

Labelling Roughyeds “an impressive side”, coach Tony Smith said: “They’re on a good run and they’ll be full of confidence, but we've watched them five times and we have a fairly comprehensive idea of how they might play.

“Bower Fold is a small pitch and we need to remember that too.

“We all know what happened to Hull KR, so we have to make sure we take this tie seriously.”

Warrington (from): Clark, Cox, Currie, Evans, Gidley, Hill. Jullien, King, Lineham, Murray, Ormsby, Penny, Philbin, Ratchford, Ryan, Sims, Smith, Westerman, Wilde.