Match Report

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Oldham RLFC
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Wigan Warriors

19th Jan 2025

Kick Off 3.00pm

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Boundary Park, Oldham

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Match Report

A crowd over 3000 watched Super League champions Wigan edge past Oldham 28-16 in an entertaining pre-season game at Boundary Park as Sean Long's side stepped up their preparations for the new Championship season.

Iain Thornley scored a try on debut, while another Wigan old boy Logan Astley and Jay Chapelhow also crossed as the Roughyeds recovered from a slow...

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Lineups

ORLFC

Subs

18th Man

Wigan Warriors

Hodkinson; Douglas, Eckersley, Lowe, Cartwright; Farrimond, Kerr; Byrne, Leeming, Dupree, Walters, Hirst, Hill

Subs

Forber, Chan, Makin, McDermott, Mason, Yeomans, Daniel, Eseh

18th Man

Match Stats

ORLFC

Kieran Dixon
Goals: 1
Iain Thornley
Tries: 1
Logan Astley
Tries: 1
Jay Chapelhow
Tries: 1

Wigan Warriors TRIES

Dupree, Douglas, Byrne, Forber, Cartwright, Yeomans

Wigan Warriors GOALS

Eckersley 2/6

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A crowd over 3000 watched Super League champions Wigan edge past Oldham 28-16 in an entertaining pre-season game at Boundary Park as Sean Long’s side stepped up their preparations for the new Championship season.

Iain Thornley scored a try on debut, while another Wigan old boy Logan Astley and Jay Chapelhow also crossed as the Roughyeds recovered from a slow start to put in an encouraging first performance of the year in front of a packed Joe Royle Stand.

“I thought we got what we wanted out of it,” head coach Long told Roughyeds TV.

We know where we can get to, we know our ceiling and that’s what these games are about. I thought in the second half we were a lot better. We came out, reset, got in the arm wrestle and controlled their middles.”

Long handed first starts to star signings Josh Drinkwater, Matty Ashurst, Iain Thornley, Gil Dudson and Adam Milner but saw his side suffer a nightmare start when Jumah Sambou knocked on straight from kick off. Wigan mounted immediate sustained pressure on Oldham’s line and former Roughyed Tyler Dupree pounced on a Kruise Leeming kick to open the scoring, Zach Eckersley converting for a 6-0 lead.

The impressive Jack Farrimond soon forced another error as Kieran Dixon knocked on his kick, Jacob Douglas nipping in to score, before Liam Byrne crashed over as the World Club champions stormed into a 16-0 lead.

But far from being rattled, the Wigan purple patch stirred Oldham into action, and Long’s men deservedly got on the board as former Warrior Thornley finished off a slick move from Danny Craven’s pass, Dixon adding the extras to cut the arrears to 16-6.

The visitors though struck again before the break as substitute Tom Forber was sent in by Farrimond to given Wigan a 20-6 half-time lead.

The Roughyeds’ response after the break was strong. With both sides making a series of interchanges, it was Astley off the bench who grabbed a Riley Dean offload to score, Dean missing the extras as Oldham crept back to within 10 points at 20-10.

But with Warriors legend Tommy Leuluai in charge of the team it was Wigan who found the next two scores in the left corner through young winger Josh Cartwright and then Finlay Yeomans to forge a 28-10 lead.

Oldham let several chances slip, with Danny Craven not quite able to take the final pass from a terrific Elijah Taylor break, but at the other end there was some herculean defending as Mo Agoro chased back a lost cause from way out to halt a certain intercept try from Farrimond. That moment inspired Oldham into a strong finish as Jay Chapelhow powered on to a smart pass from Dean to touch down, Dean converting to make it 16-28, and Oldham bombing another fine late chance in the corner with extra men out wide.

“We made too many errors in back field which cost us and put our middles under the pump,” said Long of his team’s slow start.

Wigan scored two tries off kicks and we just didn’t start fast. We had two chances in the first half which we bombed and then three in the second that on another day we score. But I thought Wigan were clinical.”

New signing Drinkwater believes his side left themselves too much to do despite a much-improved second half.

“That first half we made it pretty hard on ourselves and we will take a lot of lessons from it, we were pretty disappointed with how we played,” he told Roughyeds TV.

“But I thought the boys did a really good job in that second half. We played a lot better, it’s our first friendly and sometimes it is good to get the lessons done early so we will take a lot from it.”

One concern for Oldham was captain Jordan Turner who left the field during the first half and will be assessed ahead of two more games this week.

Next up on Wednesday is the rearranged Law Cup clash with Rochdale at Boundary Park at 7:30pm, before Rochdale Mayfield come to town in the Challenge Cup next Sunday, a 12:30pm kick off.

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