No bucking of that losing trend

Photo: Max Flego

GROUNDED . . . Oldham forward Liam Thompson is brought to the turf by the Broncos defence.

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ROUGHYEDS racked up a soul destroying ninth consecutive defeat at high-flying London Broncos in the Kingstone Press Championship.

Oldham lost this encounter because of an abysmal first half display when they found themselves 34-0 adrift against the Londoners who ran in six tries in the opening 40 minutes.

Scott Naylor's team improved markedly after the half-time break, scoring three tries to Broncos' four with Jamel Chisholm, Jack Holmes and Michael Ward all crossing, but the 56-16 final score truly reflected the almighty chasm that exists at opposite ends of the table.

While London are second top, Oldham remain second bottom ahead only of Workington Town.

Oldham's woes continued in West London four days on from a 48-4 battering at home to Bradford Bulls, but the challenge now is to regroup and go again against teams surrounding them in the bottom of the table shake-up, with Whitehaven first up at Bower Fold on Sunday.

The crazy thing about this clash was that Oldham ran the show early on, with prop Phil Joy in particular making his presence felt with crunching tackles.

Indeed, Roughyeds should have got the scoreboard ticking when they received consecutive penalties in the opening sets, the first for offside and then ripping, but failed to take advantage of field position close to the London line.

If the Broncos were surprised by Oldham's start they didn't show it because in a first meaningful attack of the game Api Pewhairangi sent Daniel Harrison over on seven minutes.

Pewhairangi failed to add the extras, but the visitors' troubles were only beginning as they conceded two tries in as many sets to find themselves 16 points behind after 18 minutes of action.

BYSTANDERS

Forced on the defensive, Oldham were bystanders as Ben Hellewell sent Elliot Kear then Rhys Williams in for converted tries.

Scott Naylor's side had no answer to London's quick play-the-ball and after Kear crossed for a second try of the afternoon, courtesy of a Hellewell offload, London's full-back kicked Roughyeds into submission with a pair of clinical kicks scooped up by Williams to complete a first half hat-trick in the 36th minute.

With the game long gone, Oldham came out on the resumption to make a fist of the contest from the kick off. And, as in the opening half when they were awarded an early penalty, a similar misdemeanor provided great field position.

Pushing London back, desperate defence held up Ward and Richard Lepori twice, but Gareth Owen was coming to the fore with an astute kicking game to earn consecutive sets.

After Lepori was again held up, then Liam Johnson spilled the ball close to the line before Owen put Chisholm in the corner with a neat pass on 44 minutes.

Lewis Palfrey added the extras to get Oldham on the board.

Craig Briscoe had joined the fray, and in particular was enjoying the physical and verbal battle, but the hosts were soon firing again and Oldham struggled to contain their lofty opponents as Ilieas Macini, Hellewell, Macini from halfway and then Mark Offerdahl all crossed for London.

With Pewhairangi kicking eight of 10 conversion attempts, Broncos had a 50-point advantage.

But to their credit, Oldham refused to wilt and had the final say of a chastening contest by ending the game strongly with two further scores in the last 10 minutes of action.

Half-backs Sam Wood and Owen had cajoled Oldham forward at every opportunity, and after dual-registered Wood and then Sam Gee were held up, the visitors deservedly got a consolation score when Palfrey sent Jack Holmes over in the corner four minutes from time.

Palfrey failed to add the extras but was on target again when Ward crashed over from a few yards after getting up to his feet following a head high tackle in the last minute.

Losing by 40 points is tough to take but Oldham never shirked the uphill challenge, which is something for Naylor to build on.