OLDHAM 48 HUNSLET 16
IAN WILSON, Boundary Park, Sunday
OLDHAM recovered from last week’s disappointing performance against Bradford by convincingly overcoming a brave but outgunned Hunslet side.
Their new coach Kyle Trout, if he was not previously, will have been made fully aware of the standard that is required to cope at Championship level, even though there will also certainly have been aspects of his side’s performance from which he will also have been able to take some heart.
Hunslet’s problems began in the game’s very first set, when Oldham spread the ball to the right, setting winger Mathieu Pons free, and then, when his pass inside was touched by a Hunslet hand, the always-supporting Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e was on hand to scramble over the line for a try. Kieran Dixon converted easily, for a 6-0 scoreline.
Only a poor Oldham pass prevented another score direct from the restart, but it was not long before two further tries put distance between the sides within the first 15 minutes.
After both Owen Farnworth and Matty Wildie had gone close, and then Farnworth somehow emerged from a Hunslet scrum under their own posts with the ball in his hands, a superb, slipped pass by Ben O’Keefe put Pons over in his right corner.
And soon afterwards, Josh Drinkwater’s long mis-pass allowed Dixon to scoot in by the left-hand corner flag. Fortunately for the visitors, the two conversions were both missed – as were also the next four, though all were from right by the touchline, admittedly – so the score was 14-0 after just 13 minutes.
At this point the home side relaxed a little, and the visitors upped their commitment, so that the game began to even out. And with Lee Gaskell showing his familiar kicking and distributional skills, and both Hunslet wingers in particular impressing in their determination to make ground, the territorial battle showed some signs of becoming less unbalanced.
And after Joe Ward had taken the first of three intercepts inside his own quarter, and made considerable ground, a quick switch of the ball to the left wing allowed Mackenzie Turner to squeeze over, to put Hunslet on the board.
There followed an impressive solo effort from close range by Oldham right centre O’Keefe, but then another try on the left, after efficient transfer, by Billy Jowitt just on the half-time hooter, which the try-scorer converted, brought his side relative respectability at 10-18 at the interval.
One suspects that Sean Long may have expressed his disappointment about some aspects of Oldham’s first-half display rather forcibly during the interval, because they certainly came out determined to make their clear forward superiority count much more consistently.
The result was a further six tries during the second half, at regular intervals, several either scored by, or deriving from, direct play by members of the Roughyed pack. Farnworth, George Hirst and Gil Dudson each powered over from close range, and it was Dudson’s good work that led directly to a second Laulu-Togaga’e score.
The other two tries came early in the half, a second classic centre outside-break score by O’Keefe and a second too for Dixon, this one put on a plate by a miracle ball by his centre Ben Davies.
It was perhaps only just that Hunslet did get a consolation in the 70th minute, when prop Harvey Hallas showed he could get in on the close-range try-scoring act too.
GAMESTAR: Ben O’Keefe contributed two good solo centre tries plus one miracle assist, though the Roughyeds’ success was essentially one driven by an overall team effort.
GAMEBREAKER: Two scores in the five minutes after half-time by Oldham suggested that they were not intending to let the brave visitors back into the game again, as they had during the game’s second quarter.
MATCHFACTS
OLDHAM
31 Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e
39 Mathieu Pons
24 Ben O’Keefe
38 Ben Davies
2 Kieran Dixon
42 Morgan Smith
23 Josh Drinkwater
10 Owen Farnworth
9 Matty Wildie
15 Jay Chapelhow
30 George Hirst
17 Elijah Taylor
13 Adam Milner
Subs (all used)
8 Gil Dudson
16 Pat Moran
14 Bailey Aldridge
21 Lewis Baxter
Tries: Laulu-Togaga’e (1, 45), Pons (9), Dixon (13, 49), O’Keefe (34, 41), Farnworth (55), Hurst (62), Dudson (77)
Goals: Dixon 2/6, Drinkwater 2/4
HUNSLET
1 Jimmy Watson
40 Joe Ward
4 Billy Jowitt
20 Lloyd McEwan-Peters
5 Mackenzie Turner
38 Lee Gaskell
41 Sam Ackroyd
8 Harvey Hallas
34 Mason Corbett
31 Kevin Larroyer
37 Will Kirby
22 Harrison Gilmore
10 Matty Fletcher
Subs (all used)
13 Jordan Syme
15 Liam Carr
25 Kobe Rugless
26 Ethan O’Hanlon
Tries: Turner (24), Jowitt (39), Hallas (70)
Goals: Jowitt 1/2, Gaskell 1/1
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 10-0, 14-0, 14-4, 18-4, 18-10; 22-10, 26-10, 30-10, 36-10, 42-10, 42-16, 48-16
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Oldham: Ben O’Keefe; Hunslet: Lee Gaskell
Penalty count: 7-4
Half-time: 18-10
Referee: Tara Jones
Attendance: 1,711