WORD has it that Liam Bent, the youngest of our contracted players, made more than 50 tackles in our recent win at Workington — a phenomenal feat.
He also scored the first of our six tries and got himself sin-binned for punching Town skipper and prop Oliver Wilkes . . . a game for the family album, that’s for sure !
The RFL has since concluded that the yellow card was sufficient punishment for 20-year-old Bent, once of Wigan St Jude’s and Salford Red Devils, where he had two seasons in the under-19s and another two as a full-time member of the senior squad.
He played 17 games for Roughyeds on loan last year and he didn’t hesitate to sign permanently when opportunity knocked last autumn.
Astonishingly for a player just out of his teens who tips the scales at less than 14 and a half stone, ‘Benty’ regularly tops the tackle count, as he has done right back to his St Jude’s days.
“I love tackling and for me it’s the most important part of rugby league,” he said.
“I don’t know how many tackles I did at Workington, but it was probably quite a few because that’s what I do.
“I regard defending as the biggest part of my job. As a team we defend pretty well, but we do have the odd blip now and again and we’ve got to strive to be at our best for 80 minutes in every game.
“When we’re doing that we won’t be far off where we want to be — and I have no doubts at all about our ability to win promotion.”
The only player currently playing for Roughyeds who is younger than Liam is 19-year-old on-loan full-back Luke Hooley, who was born nine months after the ‘baby’ of the Oldham pack.
Next youngest, all aged 21, are Matty Wilkinson, Dave Eccleston and Adam Jones, who is second youngest behind Bent . . . and only by six months.
