Oldham lose to Catalans in France

Catalans proved too strong for Oldham at the Stade Gilbert Brutus as the French side punished errors to force Roughyeds out of the Challenge Cup.

The Dragons inflicted most of the damage in the first half, capitalising on knock-ons. However, Roughyeds refused to lie down, and were unlucky not to get on the scoresheet after having three tries disallowed.

Riley Dean thought he had opened the scoring after meeting Tom Nisbet’s cross-field kick, but the effort was ruled out when he was penalised for a push off the ball. Jake Bibby then appeared to score shortly after the break with an acrobatic dive in the corner, only for the touch judge to rule that he had stepped into touch. Tom Nisbet was also denied a score in the final minute when James Vella judged that the ball had been knocked on.

“When we had opportunities with the ball, we moved it well,” said Oldham boss Alan Kilshaw.

Some of our ball movement was excellent. If we do that consistently, we are going to be a good side.

I thought we got one in the corner there, as well. We made a few breaks and we did a couple of things, under severe pressure, that we have been practicing in training. If we can build on that then we will take that as a positive.”

The Dragons opened the scoring through Lenny Marc, who dived over in the corner, and two more for the young Frenchman followed swiftly to leave Oldham shellshocked.

At 14-0, all was not lost, and a scrum ten metres out provided Oldham with an opportunity but they could not find a killer blow.

A Leo Darrelatour try increased the Dragons' lead, while Laulu-Togaga’e and Staines combined for Chris Satae to power through before OIdham’s former full-back scored one of his own for a 30-0 half-time lead.

“We prepared better and we planned to perform better than that,” added Kilshaw.

We self-sabotaged early on, we spoke about being patient but when we got up the other end, we forced things that we didn’t need to do.

We were chasing the game and we didn’t have any possession to put any fatigue into Catalans so the last 20 minutes of the first half was very difficult because they were nice and fresh, and we got rolled.”

Roughyeds started the second forty strongly, but Bibby’s try was denied with the Dragons going up the other end to score another through Kruise Leeming this time.

More tries came for the Dragons. Lipowicz added his name to the tally, Staines grabbed two and Sexton delivered the final blow.

Oldham were denied a consolation late on when Tom Nisbet grounded in the corner, with the referee ruling a knock on.