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 9th 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.

In the backs

Appearing on the wing, and having played every match this season bar one, is Adam Clay. Adam started his career with Salford in 2011. After spells with Leigh, North Wales and Barrow, he joined Oldham in 2014. Richard Lepori usually plays at fullback but lso appears occasionally on the wing. He started his career with Oldham in 2013. In 2015 he signed for Whitehaven, after a year playing in Australia, but returned to Oldham in July of the same year. Lepori is a regular Italian international and is Oldham’s leding try sorer this year. Should they both play, commentators could have problems with Scott Turner as there is not only the Fev winger, but Oldham have a player with the same name who also plays on the wing, as well as playing at fullback. The Oldham player began at Barrow and was then at North Wales until joining Oldham in mid-season last year.

In the halves

In July last year, Oldham took halfback, Dave Hewitt, on loan from Sheffield Eagles. He made a sufficient impression and they signed him to their squad in the close season. He also had a loan spell with Oldham (from Saint Helens) in 2015. Hewitt has formed a new halfback pairing this season with Scott Leatherbarrow, another new signing, who was at London Broncos last year after previous spells with Batley and Keighley.

Up front

Kenny Hughes is a one-club player having begun with Oldham in 2013. In is first two seasons he played at either halfback or hooker but is nowadays regularly playing at hooker, a position he usually rotates with club captain, Gareth Owen. Prop forward, Adam Neal, began at Warrington and then had 4 years at Salford before joining Oldham in 2015. Last year he played for Sheffield but returned to Oldham for this year. He is a regular in Oldham’s starting team. Unlike Neal, Michael Ward usually begins on the bench and is a big impact player when he comes on. He is another one-club player who started with Oldham in 2011.

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 player at Leeds he won the ‘Fastest Man in Rugby League’ title.

None of the 2017 Rovers squad has ever played for Oldham.