Oldham blow away Fleetwood

Oldham RUFC cruised to a 58-7 victory against Fleetwood at a wet and blustery Manor Park.

With Oldham playing up the bank with the wind it did not take them long to get on the scoreboard.

A great clearance from Rob Froggatt led to a lineout where Rhys Jones gathered the ball at the back of the catch and drive as Oldham drove over after four minutes.

Alex Jobson converted to make it the perfect start at 7-0.

Froggatt then scored his first of the afternoon following another forward drive, again converted by Jobson.

Oldham were playing to their structure well but also the conditions, turning Fleetwood as often as they could putting pressure on their back three.

This then paid dividends again as from another lineout the Oldham forwards drove Fleetwood over the line to score again.

There was some contention over who scored with Jones trying his best to claim it, however last to rise was the ever-reliable Jordan McEwan who deserved the score for his fine link play from scrum half.

With no conversion Oldham were off to a great start at 19-0.

Oldham moved the ball when they could and this led to more points when Fleetwood were caught offside after the Oldham backs had made yards into the opposition 22.

Jobson kicked the penalty to add another three points.

Oldham continued to control territory and possession and Froggatt scored his second on the half hour mark after the backs once again making inroads in the Fleetwood defence backing up well and strolling under the posts to score, with Jobson converting to make it 29-0.

The second half started similar to the first, however it was the backs doing the damage early in the half with Corey Kelly picking up a chip over the top from Jobson and then outpacing the defence to score near to the posts.

Jobson converted for another great start to the half for Oldham.

Even though the conditions at times were not fit for expansive rugby, Oldham seemed to be going wide at every opportunity and the following this scored two further tries from the returning Sean Carter and Jobson, who brought guile and pace at full back.

Both tries came down the left edge following decent hands from the Oldham backline.

With neither converted it was 46-0 with 20 minutes to go.

Andy Joy was the next to get in on the action following a quick penalty from McEwan with the ball going through some quick hands Joy throwing an outrageous sidestep to score.

Oldham then lost Cameron Wood to the sin-bin for a high tackle, which gave Fleetwood some impetus.

However, they seemed to kick away possession too often rather than pressuring the Oldham line.

Oldham actually scored again whilst down in numbers with a nice move down the right-hand side with some nice hands with Joy again making the break to offload to Jobson who scored and converted it to put Oldham up to 58 points.

To be fair to Fleetwood, they kept going and with Oldham tiring they managed a consolation try in the last few minutes which was converted to make the final score 58-7.

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