On a wonderful fine day with the sun was shining following what can only be described as a torrential down fall during the night preceding. The pitch was heavy and wet but perfectly playable.

Following the last meeting at Sedgley Park in the quarter final of the Lancashire Plate Trophy in which Oldham were narrow victors Sedgley Park came to Manor Park to seek revenge. Sedgley Park arrived with only 12 players due to injury and holidays. Under the rules of the competition Oldham were only permitted to field the same number of players from there squad of 20. The format was agreed between the referee, Matt Dyson, the Oldham Team Manager Tim Barlow and the Sedgley Park Team Manager Vanessa Curran as 6 forwards and 6 backs.

At the kick off Oldham received the ball and they exerted their game plan with immediate effect. They had decided to maintain possession of the ball and devoid Sedgley from possession. It was clear from the outset that this was a tactic well worth applying. Oldham immediately ran hard and straight with confidence, they were nearing the Sedgley line and through some excellent tackling by Sedgley and great defence play they held Oldham from scoring. However, Oldham held the composure and skilfully recycled the ball and decided to keep it in the forwards to drive forward time after time. After 2 minutes of phase after phase the Oldham Captain, Max Walsh drove over the line for an excellent try which was well deserved. The try went unconverted.
From the kick off Oldham made it clear that the ball was staying in their possession, again with some superb forward play and keeping the ball with excellent rucking from all and in particular Jamie ‘Pea’ Queenan the Oldham scrum half the ball came into the hands of Reece Longdin the Oldham stand-off, Reece showed his opposite number a clean set of heels and with a swift side step crossed the line after 8 minutes of play for Oldham’s second try which was converted by the boot of the Oldham winger Josh Fitzgerald.

It took only 4 minutes for Oldham to strike again, the forwards again maintained the ball and decided to farm it out for the backs to get more involved, with some slick passing in very wet conditions the ball went clean down the line of backs and ended in the hands of the exceptionally quick winger Toby Ryland-Jones. Toby decided to pin his ears back and ran around his opposite number to place the ball over the try line for an excellent try in which 9 out of the 12 players at some point had their hands on the ball. The try went unconverted.

This clearly was an effective stage of play and Oldham replicated it for their 4th try of the game, again by Toby Ryland-Jones who this time ran around 4 of the opposition players and placed the ball uncontested under the posts. The try was converted again by Josh Fitzgerald.

Although Sedgley Park never gave up their attempts to stop the flow of the game were met with ruthless play by Oldham, they had a mission to complete and they were very effective in carrying out the task. Again the forwards struck, hard and with crisp accuracy, the forwards took a scrummage against the head by driving their opposition off the ball. The ball came out and straight along the back line to the powerful centre James Collinson, James ran hard and straight and was stopped by a superb tackle by the Sedgley winger. Again Oldham recycled the ball and it ended up in the hands of Hayden Wheeldon, new to Oldham but he played like a seasoned pro, he ran straight and burst through 3 tackles only to be stopped in his tracks, the ball was skilfully fed back and collected by Oldham’s loose head prop Joel Cunniffe who drove hard and straight crossing the line for Oldham’s 5th try, the try went unconverted and this brought the score to 29 – 0 in Oldham’s favour.

From the restart the ball went to the Oldham back line and was driven forward by strong running again by Hayden Wheeldon, when stopped it was taken by James Collinson the Oldham inside centre who is renowned for his straight and direct powerful running who burst through at least 4 attempted tackles to cross the line under the posts, James converted his own try bringing the score to Oldham 36 – Sedgley Park 0.

Under the rules and guidelines of competition the referee blew the whistle for the end of the game as the rules, quite rightly so, dictate that when a team has a clear margin of 30 points the game ends.

It was decided by the 2 respective managers and with the agreement of both sets of players to call half time at this point, to regroup and play a second half with changes and mixing up the players.

Half time Score (Result): Oldham 36 – Sedgley Park 0

Second Half/Development Match
Sedgley Park requested that they keep their original 12 players together and they took 3 of Oldham’s players to make the side to 15, Oldham also played with 15. Straight away Sedgley were on the attack and played like a completely different side, it was as if they wanted the ball and they attacked from the commencement of play playing some very attractive rugby. At one point the Sedgley attack was very efficient with their 2nd row running straight through 3 tackles only to be stopped short of the line.

Oldham cleared their lines and Sedgley came straight back on the attack. Following 3 phases of play in Sedgley Park’s favour the ball was passed efficiently to Sedgley Park’s Captain who made a superb run to cross the line and score a well-deserved try which went unconverted.

This clearly shook Oldham up and awoke them. Oldham had possession of the ball and through some direct running and brilliant defence play by Sedgley Park they offloaded the ball through the back line. At this point there was a clear knock on by Oldham which the referee unfortunately missed and Oldham played to the whistle and tidied the ball for it to be passed to Max Walsh who cleanly broke through the defence for a try, this was unconverted.

The referee blew the whistle for full time and it was a pleasure to see all players embrace each other following a game played with great sportsmanship and discipline. Throughout the whole game there was only 1 penalty conceded by Oldham for a double movement nearing the try line.

It was a pleasure to state that all players named below played some part of the match and everyone contributed.

Oldham play host to Tarleton on Sunday the 19th November at Manor Park. The 2 teams have never met before and looking at the form of both teams this match is certainly one not to be missed. Kick off at 11.00am – come along and watch what can be expected to be a great game.

Oldham Man of the Match – Hayden Wheeldon