Oldham RUFC victorious on the road

Oldham travelled to Ormskirk on Saturday for their next fixture needing a decent result.

Having had two weeks with no game they needed to hit the ground running 

The visitors sprinted out of the blocks in the first ten minutes with two converted tries. 

The first came following a surge into the Ormskirk half from Brian Massey which was followed up by a couple of quick phases of ball tying in the home side’s defence for it to go wide through the Oldham backline with centre Owen Hewson scoring in the right corner. 

The second try came as a result of a 50-22 from Oldham skipper Tom Davies where the Oldham pack drove the following lineout infield for the Oldham backs to move the ball again to the right edge with Phil Conroy this time crossing the whitewash for the second. 

Alex Jobson converted both tries from the right touchline as Oldham fired out to a 14-0 lead.

The home team however fired back from an Oldham mistake as a long pass was intercepted by the Ormskirk centre to score a converted try when all Oldham really needed to do was clear their lines. 

This gave Ormskirk some belief and they added an unconverted try five minutes later to take the score to 14-12 in Oldham’s favour.

Oldham had gone off the boil and gone away from playing their normal pattern of play unfortunately with too many errors creeping back in. 

Oldham needed to re affirm their grip on the game as the feeling was the next team to score would hold a crucial edge going into half time.

It was winger Reece Blakeley who grabbed the next score as Oldham worked the ball down the left edge following some decent work from the pack to give Blakeley space to beat a couple of defenders to score in the left corner. 

Jobson obliged once more with the touchline conversion to give Oldham a 21-12 lead at the break.

The home team started brightly in the second half however Oldham stood firm as Ormskirk looked for that score to get them back into the game. 

Numerous attacks on the Oldham line were sent back. 

When Oldham had the ball, they turned the home team forcing them to play from deep. 

Unfortunately, Oldham had a number of attacks that were denied with scoring opportunities where twice the referee ruled that there were forward passes as Oldham scored and two occasions where Oldham knocked on over the line.

Oldham then lost Blakeley to a red card for an off the ball incident of retaliation taking Oldham down to 14 however a few minutes later the home side also went down to 14 following a similar off the ball piece of contact. 

Luke Ferrier then enhanced the Oldham lead with a barnstorming run close to the line taking contact and powering through to score and with Jobson slotting the extras and a few minutes later a penalty Oldham were looking like they may run away with the victory.

Ormskirk however scored another unconverted try to make it an uncomfortable last fifteen minutes for Oldham with Rhys Jones being sinbinned leaving Oldham with 13 players. 

With the game becoming increasingly scrappy Oldham stood firm to the final whistle to come out the eventual winners 31-17 giving them a bonus point victory away from home.

Luke Ferrier was awarded the Man of the Match award for his overall fantastic performance in both attack and defence.