T'Other Side: Oldham

T'Other Side: Oldham

Head Coach: Scott Naylor

Scott Naylor began his playing career with Wigan, making his first team debut in the 1991-92 season. He then had four seasons at Salford followed by five at Bradford Bulls during their glory days and he picked up 3 super league winners rings there. He also received international honours for England while at Bradford. He ended his career with a final year back at Salford.

After that he joined the coaching staff at Salford. He became head coach at Oldham at the start of the 2013 season. In 2015 he guided them to top place in League One and promotion via a promotion final with Keighley, thus avoiding having to go through to a Grand Final. That must have been a huge relief to the club after they had lost a whole host of grand finals in recent years. Widely tipped to be relegation contenders in 2016 Scott Naylor took them to 9^th place in the Championship and they finished the Championship Shield 3 points clear of the relegation zone.

Captain: Gareth Owen

Gareth Owen, who has played most of his career at Hooker, began with Salford in 2012. In 2014 he had loan spells with Sheffield Eagles and Oldham and then he signed for Oldham for the 2015 season. He has continued to play at hooker but in Oldham’s Easter Monday match against Halifax he played at scrum-half, deputising in that position for Oldham’s usual halfback, Dave Hewitt.

Last Time Out

FB	Scott Turner
W	Adam Clay
C	Tuoyo Egodo
C	Keiran Gill
W	Jamel Chisholm
SO	Scott Leatherbarrow
SH	Gareth Owen
P	Joe Burke
H	Kenny Hughes
P	Adam Neal
2R	Sam Wood
2R	Liam Bent
LF	Liam Thompson
Subs	Michael Ward
	Sam Gee
	Ben Davies
	Danny Langtree

The Fev connection

There are just two players in the Oldham squad who have previously played for Rovers. Nathan Chappell had two spells with Fev, in 2011-2012 and again in 2015 (in between he was in Australia). In 2012 he scored 11 tries in just 10 appearances including a hat trick against York City Knights. The other former Rover is Jamel Chisholm who was at Post Office Road in 2015 but only played once. As an academy plyer at Leeds he won the ‘Fastest Man in Rugby League’ title.

Commentator’s nightmare

A quick glance at the teamsheet for the match and some Fev fans may think they have missed some transfer news when they might well see that the Oldham fullback is Scott Turner. But then a closer inspection might well show Scott also on the Fev line-up! Yes, there are two of them. Poor commentators when they could have to deal with Scott Turner bursting down the wing for Fev and being tackled by …Scott Turner. Still I suppose it’s not as bad as the days when Fev’s second row was Gary Price and Gary Price!