SEAN Slater, our young in-form hooker, has been given a two-match penalty notice by the RFL’s Match Review Panel following an incident in the second half of the Roughyeds’ 32-12 win against Cornwall in Penryn last Sunday.
He was sin-binned for an alleged tip tackle (that’s when the tackled player’s legs go above the horizontal) on former Oldham winger Harry Aaronson.
The sport’s Review Panel later charged him with a grade ‘C’ dangerous-throw offence which was described as “lifting an opponent into a dangerous position.”
The former captain of Huddersfield Giants Academy returned from the sin-bin to continue where he left off, scoring the third of our five unanswered second-half tries by darting over the Cornwall line from dummy half —a trademark try for him and one that, with the goal, put us 22-12 in front.
The Review Panel handed a one-match ban to Cornwall’s sub forward Jake Lloyd for a similar offence, but decided to take no further action against Roughyeds forward James Thornton, who was also under review for alleged dangerous contact.
Luke Nelmes, meanwhile, has completed his five-match ban (four wins) and will be available for Sunday’s crucial game at Heywood Road (Sale) against Swinton Lions, kick-off 3pm.
Our head coach Stuart Littler won’t name his 17 until one hour before kick-off, in compliance with RFL regulations, but he will announce his 21 later today and there is speculation that it could include two players who didn’t travel to Cornwall — Dave Hewitt and Calvin Wellington — as well as vice-captain Nelmes.
Littler said of Nelmes:
“He’s available again and as vice-captain, a member of our leadership group and one of our most experienced forwards, he’ll obviously be seriously considered.
“Chewy (Hewitt) didn’t go to Cornwall because his wife was expected to give birth at any minute, but he could be available this weekend, as could Calvin Wellington, always assuming he doesn’t have adverse reaction on his hamstring injury after stepping up his training this week.”
It will be a clash of the old boys at Swinton with the return to their former stomping ground of our head coach, our vice-chairman John Roddy, our club captain, goalkicker and schemer-in-chief Martyn Ridyard and our regular front-row man Tom Spencer.
On the other side of the coin, there are no fewer than SEVEN of our former players in the Lions squad, namely Dan Abram, Max Roberts, Richard Lepori in the backs and Will Hope, Matty Wilkinson Jack Spencer and Lewis Charnock in the forwards.
What this game means to both sides – to Oldham in terms of play-off qualification and to Swinton in their drive to finish top of the play-off five – has been told time after time. Suffice to say that tonight (Friday) the attention of Oldham fans will be drawn to the game between Hunslet and Doncaster at the South Leeds Stadium.
It might all come down to the clash of Roughyeds and Hunslet at the Vestacare Stadoim on Sunday week, September 4.
Watch this space as the drama unfolds at the South Leeds Stadium tonight and at Heywood Road, Sale on Sunday!
