Roughyeds romp to 40-20 win over Midlands

Oldham put on a show in their 40-20 victory over Midlands which saw them return to winning ways in style.

Roughyeds blew the Hurricanes away, racing to a 26-0 lead in as many minutes, during a period in which Oldham were simply unplayable.

Midlands restored some pride in the second half, clawing the advantage back to 12 points before Oldham re-gained control and killed the game off with late tries from Tom Nisbet and Ben Davies.

Alan Kilshaw was eager to see a response from last week’s narrow defeat at the hands of Widnes and the Roughyeds boss was delighted to see that come to fruition.

“I think that was borne out of last week’s frustration,” he said.

We wanted to come here and blow them off the park, and at one point it looked like it was going to be a really big score.

They are a good side, Doncaster have come here and lost, and so have Batley. Coming here is going to be a graveyard for some teams.

I am really pleased we have won because we knew they wouldn’t go away. As soon as they started getting a bit of the ball, it became a bit edgy so I was really glad that we wrestled back that momentum in the second half.”

Kieran Dixon was first on the scoresheet, grounding in the corner following a clever shift, and scored another – his 200th of his career and ninth of the season already – off the back of good work from centre Davies.

Having come close in previous games, Matty Ashurst finally turned his line-break into a try and Oldham’s dominance was further evidenced by Owen Farnworth getting in on the act via a crash-over try under the posts.

Morgan Smith made it 26-0, after Drinkwater broke through and offloaded to the scrum-half, before Lewis Else grabbed a consolation for Midlands just before half-time.

The Hurricanes came out of the second half fired up and they caught Oldham cold, scoring twice in quick succession – through Luis Roberts and Ryan Johnson – as they threatened an unlikely comeback, before Roughyeds wrestled back control.

“We need to be really mindful, when we are getting points and are well in front, of not having a set where we are off,” added Kilshaw.

“We gave them a sniff and you saw in the second half – we kicked off to them and we didn’t touch the ball. We had one set and they came up with two tries.”

Late on, Matty Ashurst scored a second and Nisbet made things more comfortable before Midlands hit back through Todd Horner.

It was Ben Davies who would deliver the final blow, to inflict defeat on this Midlands side which had been on a three-game win streak.