Roughyeds triumph in Law Cup showpiece

Roughyeds snatched back the Law Cup with a hard-fought 18-14 victory over Rochdale, thanks to two tries in the last five minutes from Zac Baker and Joe Hartley.

Despite the victory, the immediate thoughts after the game were focused on the health of Lewis Sheridan, who was sent straight to hospital after being stretchered off with a suspected knee dislocation.

The former Hornets man fell awkwardly on his knee when he was dragged back as he advanced towards the Rochdale line.

Luke Nelmes was also in the wars and was forced off after suffering a dislocation to a finger.

Oldham had the lion's share of possession for large parts of the game, but threw away countless chances to get on the scoresheet and it was Hornets who took the initiative.

They grew in confidence after comfortably dealing with everything that Oldham offered.

Both Hartley and Deane Meadows were denied tries in the first half after being held up.

As the minutes ticked by, Hornets were finding more gaps in an Oldham 13 which struggled to replicate the performance produced against Widnes last weekend.

After a spell of defending their own line, the Roughyeds defence buckled after Forber forced his way over.

Oldham thought they had a quick response to the try - which was unconverted - but Deane Meadows, who looked as if he had the ball grounded, was adjudged to have knocked on.

A lot of Hornets’ good wook came through former Oldham man Dave Hewitt, who found a lot of joy down the Roughyeds’ right edge.

As the half went on, Hornets found more joy and made easy metres.

Dan Harrison regularly found gaps, as well as Joe Purcell who shrugged off weak tackle attempts.

Oldham nearly escaped with being only one score down at half-time, but they were deservedly punished just before the hooter sounded.

It was Duane Straugheir who went in unchallenged to give Hornets an 8-0 lead at the break.

There was plenty of effort in the second forty from Roughyeds as Hornets struggled to gain territory, but Oldham made it easy for the youthful Rochdale side with slow play-the-balls.

It was looking like it wasn’t going to be Oldham’s day, but they battled on.

There were well-worked plays from long kicks out right by Martyn Ridyard and the tactic finally paid off, third time lucky.

Calvin Wellington plucked the ball out of the air and it was Ethan Ferry who scored Oldham’s first try after a scrambling Rochdale defence failed to stop him.

Just when Oldham had got back into the game, they threw it away.

Hornets stole the ball back directly from the kick off and subsequently forced a goal-line drop out.

It looked like Oldham were going to get out of jail when Kian Morgan had both hands on the ball from a kick on Rochdale's last play.

But Ben O’Keefe had other ideas, he robbed the ball and touched down under the sticks.

With the scores at 6-14, Oldham threw away more chances as they looked for a way in.

As the clock ticked down, Roughyeds finally found their groove after being second best for most of the game.

They piled on the pressure and, after a couple of repeat sets, Baker powered his way over for a try which was duly converted by Martyn Ridyard.

Oldham, still two points down, had the bit between their teeth and consecutive penalties in their favour gave them much-needed possession in Hornets’ half.

It was on the last play when, after some desperate offloads, the ball was scrambled to Martyn Ridyard.

He hammered the ball over to the right, like he did for Oldham’s first, and it sailed over the hapless Hornets winger into the hands of Joe Hartley.

He had all the time in the world to catch the ball and dive over the try line to take the lead for the first time in the game.

There wasn’t enough time for a Hornets response who had battled hard for the whole game.

Roughyeds weren’t at their best, but they found a way to win.

Teams:

OLDHAM: McNally; Hartley, Wellington, Morgan, Ah Van; Ridyard, Sheridan; Nelmes, Wilkinson, Newton, Ferry, Baker, Meadows.

Subs: Thornton, Slater, Newton, Paga, Bardsley, Yarrow, Keppel, Hamilton, Taira, Hirst. (Keppel, Yarrow, Hamilton, Hirst not used).

ROCHDALE: Purcell; Tyrer, O’Keefe, Cooke, Harrison; Else, Hewitt; Braham, Roden, Killan, Broadman, Straugheir, Davies-Aspey.

Subs: Berry, Arnold, Brannan, O’Hanlon, Connolly, Ratcliffe, Clarke, Forber, Bowman (all used).

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