OLDHAM 46 DEWSBURY RAMS 0
IAN WILSON, Bower Fold, Stalybridge, Sunday
OLDHAM moved smoothly into the last 16, scoring nine tries to zero.
New coach Alan Kilshaw will be delighted by the nilling, of course, as well as by the quality of some of his side’s attacking play, but will no doubt expect the next round to present rather more of a challenge.
Not that the Dewsbury lads didn’t try hard, or compete until the final whistle – they did – but they were simply outmuscled up front, so they always seemed to be on the back foot.
Oldham did what good professionals know to do – suck in in the centre and then spread wide as quickly as possible.
And they had the men able to link forwards and backs superbly in scrum-half Josh Drinkwater, in particular, ably assisted in their distribution skills by stand-off Morgan Smith and Ben Davies.
While starting at centre, Davies was forced to change position when unlucky fullback Riley Dean was injured when preventing what turned out to be the nearest the Rams went to scoring in the whole game, Caelum Jordan being thwarted in only the fifth minute.
And he created a number of scores by his quick and accurate final deliveries to secure try-scoring overlaps for the outside men, Kieran Dixon, Tom Nisbet and Jake Bibby, with five tries between these three.
The scoring began in just the third minute, with Dixon on the end of a slick right-to-left shift, then kicking the first of five goals from nine attempts, notching magnificently from the touchline (he narrowly missed four others from wide out).
Five minutes later, Nisbet was set free, and Bibby latched onto his inside pass, then on 20, it was Dixon again, from a superb mis-pass by Davies.
For the final two tries of the first half, the forwards got in on the act.
Debutant Ewan Moore was in support of a marvellous dummy-half break by fellow Aussie Cole Geyer, then youngster Harvey Makin touched down after a Drinkwater chip caused chaos near the Dewsbury try-line.
Among the Dewsbury workhorses, diminutive hooker Jacob Parkinson never stopped looking to make ground from the play-the-ball, Craig McShane did some good things at fullback and halves Dan Coates and Jacob Hookem both put in some challenging grubber kicks on the few occasions they had possession near the Oldham line. But the home defence was impenetrable on the day.
And the second half mirrored the first in this respect, as well as yielding four further Roughyeds scores to make up the final 46.
More good work by Davies set the ball rolling, this time his final delivery putting Bibby in, and his superb tip-on pass also created the last try for Nisbet.
Geyer had got the second of the half, in inside support of a superb inside chip by Nisbet, but the eighth try was the one that brought the house down.
Debutant Emmanuel Waine came on early to replace Dean, though forced to play in the centre, not of course his usual position.
But his blockbusting runs soon had the crowd very much on his side, and as the game went on, no less than three times he so nearly got over on the end of good work by others inside him – but not quite.
The big moment came in the 65th minute, when more slick transfer right to left allowed him to charge over. An entertainer indeed!
GAMESTAR: Ben Davies was shifted to fullback after a very early injury to Oldham’s Riley Dean, and performed very well in an unaccustomed role, in particular in his passing to create tries out wide.
GAMEBREAKER: Kieran Dixon’s second try, in just the 20th minute, gave the Roughyeds a three-score lead, and Dewsbury were never going to recover from there.
MATCHFACTS
OLDHAM
7 Riley Dean
21 Tom Nisbet
5 Jake Bibby
4 Ben Davies
2 Kieran Dixon
6 Morgan Smith
23 Josh Drinkwater
8 Jack Ormondroyd
9 Matty Wildie
10 Owen Farnworth
11 Matty Ashurst
16 Ewan Moore
13 Adam Milner
Subs (all used)
14 Cole Geyer
15 Ted Chapelhow
19 Harvey Makin
17 Emmanuel Waine
Tries: Dixon (3, 20), Bibby (8, 45), Moore (31), Makin (38), Geyer (48), Waine (65), Nisbet (69)
Goals: Dixon 5/9
RAMS
1 Craig McShane
3 Caelum Jordan
29 Bailey O’Connor
4 George Senior
2 Tom Delaney
6 Dan Coates
7 Jacob Hookem
8 Luke Nelmes
14 Jacob Parkinson
13 Dec Tomlinson
11 Joe Summers
23 Brad Graham
16 Louis Collinson
Subs (all used)
12 Luke Mearns
20 Valu Tanē Bentley
19 Louie Walker
15 Jacob Bateman
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 10-0, 14-0, 20-0, 26-0; 32-0, 38-0, 42-0, 46-0
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Oldham: Ben Davies; Rams: Jacob Parkinson
Penalty count: 5-8
Half-time: 26-0
Referee: Milo McKelvey
Attendance: 741