SCOTT Naylor didn’t mince his words after what he perceived to be another poor Oldham RLFC performance in a 22-22 draw at Barrow.
He was particularly miffed at how Raiders were allowed to score FIVE tries in the corner in almost identical fashion down the Roughyeds’ left flank.
Asked if he was concerned at the ease with which the home side fashioned four tries for their pacy right-winger Shane Toal and another for his centre Declan Hulme, the Oldham boss said: “Yes, I was concerned the first time it happened.
“I couldn’t believe the second one; I thought the third was a joke; the fourth a wind-up; and the fifth was totally unexplainable.
“To get done five times by the same people on the same play is very hard to take.
“Barrow away is always a big challenge. That’s why I like it and why I like going up there in pre-season every year.
“You learn a lot about your players when it’s tough and cold and you’re behind on the scoreboard in a biting wind.
“There are ways to win a game of rugby and in the two friendlies we’ve had so far we seem to have been doing the opposite.
“That’s what friendlies are for – to work on things and improve as the weeks go by.
“We have to look at ourselves and massively improve as a group of people if we are going to do better in the Championship than we did last season.
“There were some positives – for example, I thought our middle unit was very good considering the lads we had missing – but it’s clearly obvious what we have to work on as a group of people.
“We’ve got to work hard this week to prepare ourselves for the Rochdale game, which is NOT a friendly. The friendlies have finished now.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.