Sean Long praised Oldham’s travelling fans who roared on the team to a seventh successive victory, as the Roughyeds won 42-0 at Cornwall to top the League 1 table ahead of a huge trip to Keighley.
The vocal Yeds travelling support again turned out in number to give Long’s men the edge in a fiery contest that saw Oldham pull away from a slender 12-0 half-time lead for a nine-try win and a second successive shutout of the opposition.
As tempers boiled over, Cornwall had a man sent off and another sin-binned in an incident the also saw Oldham winger Mo Agoro yellow-carded, but the Roughyeds kept their cool for another impressive win.
”I think we are a second-half team, we score a lot of our tries then which is testament to our fitness," Long told Roughyeds TV.
“Full credit to Cornwall who hung in there and tried to get under our skin a little bit. We didn’t play great, it wasn’t the perfect performance but sometimes you have got to win ugly."
After a cagey opening, Oldham found the breakthrough thanks to their dependable top scorer, as Cian Tyrer grabbed his 15th try of the campaign midway through the first half from captain Jordan Turner’s flick pass. Tyrer was unable to add the extras from the touchline, but the Roughyeds doubled their advantage minutes later when Brad Gallagher span and stretched over, Astley again off target from the kicking tee.
In baking hot conditions the hosts enjoyed a lot of possession and forced back-to-back goal-line dropouts without any real threat and it was flying winger Agoro who made it 12-0 when slick hands from left to right allowed Phoenix Laulu-Togaga’e to give Agoro a stroll through. Danny Craven took over the kicking duties but was also off target as Oldham headed into the break just 12-0 ahead.
”It was a little bit scrappy first half but all credit to the boys, we reset at half-time and came out to play a decent brand of rugby,"
said Long, and he was not wrong.
Tyrer ripped through the Cornwall defence again and had four team-mates queueing up for a try, the winger sending in Logan Astley under the posts for an 18-0 lead. That seemed to break the back of a stubborn Cornwall resolve as the points started flowing for Long’s men, Agoro adding his second following a classy move direct from a scrum, and captain Turner walking in for a gift try following a Cornwall knock-on just metres from their line.
Cornwall had hitherto neutralised the threat of giant forward Adam Lawton but he would not be denied as he grabbed two quickfire tries to maintain his excellent scoring run — that’s six tries in two games now for the second row.
Then came the flashpoint, a melee after Agoro was forced into touch, that saw the Oldham man binned along with Cornwall’s Cullen, and a red card to the hosts’ Collins.
Top scorer Tyrer had the final say, again created by PLT, to give the travelling fans plenty to cheer about on the long trip home.
”The fans are outstanding and we just want to thank them for their support," Long added.
”It got a little bit tasty towards the back end but our lads stuck together. Full credit to Cornwall who hung in there and tried to get under our skin a little bit."
Oldham now head to Keighley next Sunday for the biggest game of the season so far, with the Cougars level on points at the top having played one game more.
Cornwall: Rusling, Nichol, Small, Marvin, Mitchell, Conroy, Black, Rhodes, Collins, Boots, Cullen, Simpson, Lloyd
Subs: Weetman, Bannister, Boardman, Mkuhlani
Oldham: Laulu-Togaga’e, Agoro, Johnson, Turner, Tyrer, Craven, Astley, Farnworth, Wildie, J.Chapelhow, Gallagher, Lawton, Taylor.
Subs: Aldridge, T.Chapelhow, Johnson, Hirst
Scorers:
Oldham:
Tries: Tyrer 2, Gallagher, Agoro 2, Astley, Turner, Lawton 2
Goals: Astley 3
Match image courtesy of Colin Bradbury
