Spirited Roughyeds lose out to Toulouse

Oldham produced a spirited performance on a red-hot day in Toulouse but lost out 34-14 to the Betfred Championship leaders.

Tries from Mo Agoro, Ben Davies and Zane Musgrove gave a huge travelling Roughyeds support plenty to cheer, but as pitchside temperatures peaked at 39 degrees it was the home side who finished strongest, with 12 points in the final two minutes settling the contest.

“Our defence was really good but errors and penalties cost us,” head coach Sean Long told Roughyeds TV.

The Oldham fans who travelled here were outstanding and I want to thank them for their support.”

Long had winger Agoro back in his side but was without Riley Dean and Gil Dudson through injury, while Owen Farnworth earned a recall.

In blistering heat Oldham started strongly in a tight, tactical contest which saw a couple of early penalties give the hosts the upper hand and Maxime Stefani break through down the left edge to give Toulouse an early 6-0 lead.

The response from Long’s men was good. A full set on the Toulouse line came to nothing but on the next trip up the pitch a lovely floated Laulu-Togaga'e pass allowed Agoro the space to produce a powerful finish in the corner. Drinkwater missed the extras but Oldham were back in the game.

Two unforced errors though allowed the French side to seize control. First Mathieu Pons was harshly adjudged to have knocked on with hands in the tackle, and Benjamin Laguerre scored on the outside of Pons straight from the resulting scrum.

Then, after Agoro also dropped the ball under his own posts, Toulouse produced a carbon copy for Laguerre’s second try - again straight from the scrum.

From a 14-4 half-time deficit Oldham knew the start to the second half needed to be swift.

And it was, Ben Davies rewarded the Roughyeds’ best spell of the game with a try also straight from a scrum. Drinkwater was again unable to convert but Oldham were back within 6 points and dominating.

The bounce of the ball and a few disputable decisions went against Oldham as Toulouse found a second wind to finish strongly.

Eloi Pelissier was wrongly adjudged to have tapped the ball behind for a drop out that invited more pressure on the visitors’ line and liverwire full-back Olly Ashall-Bott pounced on a grubber through to extend the lead to 20-8.

Again Oldham rallied, with Zane Musgrove’s powerful finish reducing the deficit to 14-20, Pelissier having already been denied a try when adjudged to have been held up.

Crucially Anthony Marion landed a penalty to move Toulouse two scores clear, and that proved enough as two late tries in the last two minutes from Rob Butler and Ashall-Bott on the hooter added a flattering gloss to a scoreline that did not reflect Oldham’s efforts.

There was plenty of spirit in temperatures that Oldham won’t encounter again this year, but Long’s men were ultimately undone by a couple of unforced errors and debatable decisions that may have yielded a different outcome.

“We started really well but conceded a try from an error,” said Long.

Then a couple of errors from our outside backs put us under the pump and they scored two tries from scrums.

Everything that they scored in the first half we handed to them on a plate. That’s probably a fix up for us going forward.

The lads at half-time said they were in the game and we ripped straight in at the start of the second half. We got that try and I thought we were on. We were on top and we could have got the win. But we just couldn’t convert our pressure into points ultimately.

We were good, we just came up against a side who were well drilled and played the long game. They build a lot of pressure and want you to crack first. They are very patient and eventually just wear you down.”

The result leaves Oldham 4th in the Championship ahead of next weekend’s trip to play 5th placed Halifax at Odsal.