Lacklustre Oldham RU defeated by Wigan

Oldham RUFC's lacklustre performance was punished as they were thumped 59-12 at Wigan.

With Oldham looking to build on last week's win and Wigan keen on continuing their good run of form in the league thus far, this game shaped up to be yet another close one.

On paper Oldham’s team looked strong with only a few changes, which saw young Lewis Ward, Josh Molloy, Alex Jobson and Cameron Wood all back at scrum half, centres and second row respectively.

A late addition to the squad saw Eliot Scanlon-Wells make his first team debut from the bench.

Wigan opted to go with the strong wind behind them from the off and soon put Oldham under pressure despite strong carries from Isaac Dobbs and Marshall Yates.

Oldham just couldn't seem to get up the pitch and a good break by the Wigan winger soon put Oldham on the back foot and a combination of some quick hands and poor defending saw the second row throw a neat dummy to stroll over the line.

With the conversion just going wide, the score was 5 - 0.

This seemed to wake Oldham up and further strong carries from Louis Fitton, Andrew Birch and Nick Hackman seemed to be making inroads into the Wigan defence.

This drew a penalty from an offside defender, but any advantage was soon lost by an overthrown lineout.

This really wasn't shaping up to be Oldham’s day and losing winger Corey Kelly early on to an injury, Wigan soon took advantage and were on the ascendancy.

A strong break by the Wigan fullback through would be defenders glided his way almost untouched the full length of the pitch before releasing a divine round the back pass for his supporting winger to go over for their second of the afternoon.

At this point Wigan had the impetus to really put Oldham to the sword and despite the defensive efforts of Luke Ferrier, Jack Taylor and Dobbs,

Wigan began to run a mock and were scoring tries for fun, with Oldham’s defence nowhere in sight.

With two minutes to go before half time, Oldham found themselves down 33 - 0.

It was Taylor who stepped up to the mark and barrelled over for a try, to somewhat raise the spirits in the Oldham camp.

Jobson missing the conversion, so the half time score was 33 - 5.

Oldham seemed to come out a little brighter and really put the Wigan pack under some pressure early on.

The game added to Oldham’s injury woes losing props Chris Shaw and Yates early in the second half, leading to uncontested scrums.

A strange ruling saw Oldham having to drop a man, taking them down to 14.

Despite this Fitton took his opportunity, picking from the base of the scrum and charged over the line for a fine try. Jobson adding the extras to make it 33 - 12.

In a strange turn of events Oldham raised their game, strong carries from Greg Higgins, Cameron Wood and debutant Scanlon-Wells, who took defenders with him setting a good platform going forward.

Some quick thinking and good hands from fly half Tom Davies unleashed flying winger Reece Blakeley down the right hand side.

However, he was soon bundled into touch after a good drift from the Wigan defence, the game spilled over a little, which saw Wigan lose a man following a moment of madness.

With both teams down to 14, you'd have hoped the game may have found a bit of balance, unfortunately this seemed to do the opposite for the men in red and white.

It was again Wigan who had the better of the second half, despite the best chasing back efforts of Taylor, Davies and Blakeley, they broke the line with ease and carried on running in tries for fun.

The final score was therefore 59 - 12.

It was a result coach Jim Forster and the squad surely want to forget, but really must address.

It was a lacklustre performance with many questions needed to be answered, especially of Oldham’s defensive line.

There is plenty to work on at training this week and hoping for a bit of honesty going into this weekend's home game against Bolton.

Man of the match went to second row Luke Ferrier for a tremendous individual performance.

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