Depleted Oldham sunk by Trafford

Tom Davies touches down for an Oldham try

A much-depleted Oldham RUFC side were soundly beaten 73 points to 21 by in-form Trafford MV.

Oldham, weakened by the non-availability of four of their major go-forward players - Fitton, Hackman, Pickles and Froggatt - were a clear second-best to Trafford who since November have gone from strength to strength, including securing a victory over title favourites and league leaders Eccles.

Oldham started brightly and dominated the first 15 and it was only great defence by MV which stopped Stuart Brennan grounding the ball after he had crossed the line.

The rest of the half was the visitors and they produced a virtually error-free master-class performance, scoring five converted tries.to make it 35-0.

It wasn't an easy half time team talk for Coach Jimmy Forster.

Four tries was his target and a possible crucial bonus point.

How well the Oldham team responded, and two fine team tries, finished off by Tom Davies and Alex Jobson and both converted by Jobson, provided some hope.

However, playing cavalier attacking rugby from your own line comes with a risk and firstly, an interception and then a dropped ball, provided MV with two simple scores and allowed them to regather their composure.

Oldham came back and a wonderfully-timed tackle by Ryan Arundale saw the ball spilt in the Oldham 20.

Tom Davies picked up, made a 40 yard break, and fine support saw Brennan beat the last defenders for a splendid score.

One more try needed and 15 minutes to go. The target seemed achievable.

However, as in the previous two games versus Eccles and Littleborough, Oldham ran completely out of steam.

A couple of close calls and multiple penalties went against them, discipline suffered, three players were sin-binned and Trafford were in no mood not to exploit their dominance and added four more tries.

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