Young Roughyeds are taught a lesson

Featherstone Rovers 36, Oldham 10

ROUGHYEDS took defeat on the chin at the Bigfellas Stadium on Saturday night and accepted that there was much to learn from this second of three pre-season warm-up games.

A freakish gale-force wind that howled down the pitch from the Post Office Road end from start to finish made handling hazardous and kicking a risky business at best.

A young Rovers side coped with these tricky conditions far more comfortably than Oldham and that was why they won with such relative ease — an observation endorsed forcibly by Roughyeds' assistant coach Martin Roden in his post-match summing up.

Head coach Tony Benson was there to get an overview of a young and largely experimental line-up, but his newly-promoted number two was delegated to take charge of the team for the first time.

Said Roden: "In weather like this we needed to shorten our passing game. Rovers did, we didn't. They adapted better and that was the big difference between the sides.

"We also wanted to look at different combinations. Some worked, some didn't. We made a lot of substitutions and did a lot of switching about and in that respect the game served as a useful exercise.

"Our application was poor at times, but we remained enthusiastic from start to finish. You can't buy enthusiasm, yet it is a vital ingredient of any successful side.

"The other point to make is that we are looking way beyond this game. Our season's goal is to win Championship One outright in eight months time.

"There were plenty of positives, but it's more important that Tony and I look at the things we didn't do well, and it's those things that we will be addressing this week. “We played a lot of young lads and we have a lot of learning to do.

"Individually, Ben Wood ran good lines; Danny Whitmore and John Clough were sharp around the rucks — we look pretty strong there — and Luke Sutton, all 19-stone of him, had a top game in the front-row."

Jamie Knight got a late call-up on the bench and Scott Mansfield played at loose-forward because Chris Clarke (injured) and Dave Ellison (work commitments) withdrew.

Roughyeds had seven substitutes, five of whom were used tactically in the first 20 minutes.

Oldham had a good first quarter, in which Ben Heaton, Matthew Fogarty, Jack Bradbury, Liam Gilchrist and Andy Isherwood caught the eye, but the side lost much of its early composure when the many changes started to be made.

Wood and Heaton scored first-half tries, both off Neil Roden kicks, and Mick Diveney converted the first.

Trailing 18-10 at the interval, Oldham had the wind behind them in the second half, but it was to prove more of a hindrance than a help.

They were penalised 11 times in that half alone. So it came as no real surprise they didn't score again, although the strong-running Isherwood twice had tries disallowed, the first time for faulty grounding, the second for a forward pass.

Jon Grayshon, Nat Browne, Dominic Dee (two), Mufaro Mvududu and Liam Welham scored Featherstone's tries.

Tom Carr converted six from six as Featherstone clinched victory.