Hewitt commits to Roughyeds for another two years

Scrum-half David Hewitt, who has figured in 57 of Oldham's 62 games over the last two seasons, has set the ball rolling on the Roughyeds' 2019 recruitment drive by signing a new two-year deal.

The 22-year-old's commitment to the club for 2019 and 2020 was warmly welcomed by head coach Scott Naylor, who said it was 'very important' for Roughyeds to keep the former St Helens youngster.

He added: "It's good to get started on signings and good to kick-off with 'Chewy'.

"He's been a key member of the side for the past two seasons and his appearance statistics underline his consistency.

"He led the side around the park and he was one of the lads the others always looked to (for setting the lead).

"He had a great season and he will be all the better for that.

"He's a good pro, the sort of lad it's good to have in the dressing room and it was very important we kept him."

Hewitt, then 19, made a two-try scoring debut for Roughyeds at Gloucester All Golds while on loan from St Helens in the promotion season of 2015.

He later went full-time with Sheffield Eagles before returning to Oldham, signing permanently and becoming an automatic half-back choice in 2017 and 2018.

In total, he has worn the Oldham jersey 72 times, scoring 27 tries and kicking 32 goals and one drop goal for 173 points.

Last season  he and his half-back partner Paul Crook, who each made 28 appearances, played more games than anybody else.

Hewitt's record was 13 tries, 14 goals and one drop goal for 81 points.

He was second in the club's try-scoring chart to 21-try Danny Langtree and enjoyed the distinction of scoring more tries than any other back -- two more than Matt Reid, Lee Kershaw and Zack McComb.

He said: "To re-sign for Oldham is perfect, just what I wanted.

"I felt last year was my best so far at the club.

"I daresay not everyone would say that, but from all the feedback I've had I think I'm developing as a half-back and I owe that to Nobby (Scott Naylor) and to Pete Carey.

"They are doing a lot to help me progress and that was a massive part of my decision to sign a new deal.

"As soon as I learned that Scott wanted to keep me I wanted to get the new deal over the line as quickly as possible.

"A two-year contract, which my agent negotiated for me, was a bonus; the main thing was that I just wanted to sign to continue my development under Scott and Pete.

"As far as the team was concerned last year was disappointing because we lost too many games that we should have won.

"Apart from the play-off loss at Odsal, we gave the two promoted clubs, Bradford and York, a really tough two games home and away, but we lost too many games against clubs that were around us in the table.

"Nobby told us we would come to rue that and so it proved."

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