BROTHERS Luke and Toby Adamson will create a family affair if they are on opposing sides when Oldham and Dewsbury Rams clash at Bower Fold tonight (8pm) in a crucial ‘four pointer’ at the lower end of the KP Championship table.
Oldham’s Luke (29) left the Rams last month and made his Roughyeds debut as a second-row forward in the Summer Bash defeat by Rochdale. He has played in every game since.
Dewsbury’s Toby, the younger by two years, didn’t play in the Rams’ under-strength side that lost 64-11 at Hull KR last Sunday, but it’s thought he’ll be in action tonight, possibly at prop.
“Our parents will be there with a foot in both camps, but I don’t know which team they’ll be supporting,” said Luke.
“They’ll want us both to have good games, and then leave it at that, I suppose.
“Wherever Toby plays we’ll have to do a job on him. They’ll field a much stronger team than they did at Hull KR and they’ll be keen to win it for obvious reasons, as will we.
“I was at Dewsbury for two and a half years. I have a lot of friends there and I have a lot of respect for them.
“Both teams are in a similar position in the table and we both need a win so it’s going to be another tough game.”
In a lop-sided game at Dewsbury on April 30, Scott Naylor’s men trailed 24-6 at half-time and roared back to win 28-24 with unanswered second-half tries by Michael Ward, Kieran Gill, George Tyson and Joe Burke, the last one after Scott Leatherbarrow made an outside break and found his prop backing up on the inside.
Roughyeds haven’t won since, so they need to play tonight at least as well as they did in the first and third quarters of the Halifax match, with more clinical execution when in sight of the Rams try line and with a much better set completion rate over 80 minutes.
The importance of an Oldham win, on a night when third-bottom Swinton Lions are also in action at Featherstone, can’t be over-stated.
Well aware that vocal fans at Bower Fold can help Roughyeds to get the win they crave so badly, Naylor has urged supporters to make a special effort to attend and to enjoy Oldham’s only evening game of the entire season.
Meanwhile, the clash at Bower Fold is “huge”, says Roughyeds boss Scott Naylor.
With points still available from six regular-season games plus seven Shield matches, Naylor stops short of billing this showdown as “must win”, but he does say it’s importance can’t be over-stated.
Fourth-bottom Oldham have nine points – three more than Rams, who are staring relegation in the face and travel to Stalybridge desperate to avenge the Roughyeds’ 28-24 win at their place on April 30.
Said Naylor: “As a year-two Championship side, still establishing ourselves, we’re bound to find that some games become bigger than others.
“This is one of them. It’s huge. But it’s not the be-all and end-all. In five or six of the 12 league games we’ve lost this year we’ve had the lead but we’ve been unable to hang on to it and close the game out.
“We’re not doing a lot wrong; we just need a couple of wins and then I’m sure we’ll kick on from there. We are going through a tough period. We did the same last year and came through it.”
Richard Lepori is out with an ankle injury and there will be no dual-reg players available from Huddersfield Giants.
“In such an important week for us, I’m disappointed about that,” added the Oldham boss, who will pick from last Sunday’s 17 minus Lepori and dual-reg pair Sam Wood and Tyler Dickinson, plus Jamel Chisholm, Sammy Gee, Liam Thompson, Danny Grimshaw, Liam Bent and Brad Hill.
Lepori’s ankle was still swollen at training last night and he is expected to be out for two to three weeks.
“On and off he often has trouble with this ankle,” said Naylor. “He’s a fast healer and he knows what he’s dealing with so we’re thinking he won’t be out too long,” said Naylor.
He won’t reveal his line-up until an hour before kick-off.
Oldham (from): Clay, Tyson, Turner, Leatherbarrow, Hewitt, Neal, Hughes, Burke, L Adamson, Langtree, Spencer, Ward, Owen, Davies, Chisholm, Gee, Thompson, Grimshaw, Bent, Hill.
New signing Zach Johnson, who made his debut at prop in a below-strength Rams side at Hull KR, will make his second appearance.
As many as seven or eight players who didn’t play last Sunday could return to action, among them Toby Adamson, younger brother of Oldham’s Luke, either at prop or in the second-row.
Coach Neil Kelly has targeted this game as one the Rams must win and he will be looking to recall Lucas Walshaw and Aaron Ollett, who were suspended last week, as well as scrum-half Gareth Moore, centre Macauley Hallett, utility back Shaun Squires and prop Jode Sherrife.
Josh Guzdek (full-back) and former Oldham prop Tony Tonks, who have both been injured, could also figure.
Dewsbury (from): Morton, Potts, Aaron Brown, Hooley, Alex Brown, Speakman, Fairhurst, Johnson, Hemingway, Igbinedion, Spicer, Hayes, Sykes, Day, Ward, Teanby, T Adamson, Walshaw, Ollett, Moore, Hallett, Squires, Sheriffe, Guzdek, Tonks.
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