‘Close game, disappointing result and performance.’
That was Scott Naylor’s summary of the day Roughyeds ended their eight-match winning run and Hunslet completed a league double with a 16-12 win at the South Leeds Stadium.
Said the Oldham boss:
“Hunslet are in good form and playing well, but there is no way they should have done the double on us.
“We had to be tough, and we were for most of the game, especially considering that we lost Danny Bridge and Phil Joy to injury.
“Despite that, and without doing anything amazing, we led 12-6 at half-time and in the second half we only needed to carry on doing the same thing.
“For some reason, though, we didn’t follow instruction, we didn’t kick well and we didn’t reach the end of our sets.
“For 35 minutes in the second half we were defending in our own half, making mistakes and giving Hunslet enough ball and enough good field position to score points, which they’ve done against every other side.
“To score only 12 points at Hunslet, and to concede 16, was disappointing.
“In a game like that, we needed more intelligence, more direction and a lot more calmness.
“Our middle men were immense against a big, strong unit.
“We are a young team but even so we have to have the knowledge to know when to keep it simple instead of trying to do something amazing every time we have the ball.
“Sometimes, you win games by playing boring rugby, by grinding out a win and doing the basics rather than trying the spectacular.
“We’ve only ourselves to blame for this defeat.”
Hunslet boss Gary Thornton said:
“It was two good teams going hammer and tongues at each other, and it could have gone either way.
We couldn’t have complained with a draw, but thankfully we had enough in the tank to win.
“It was a massive defensive effort to keep Oldham pointless in the second half.”
