Oldham

1st quarter 4-0
Oldham St.annes started the game with four hard drives and a barge over to take a very early 1-0 lead, Pilks replied with two strong drives from Logan and Ellis but harry was then dragged over the sidelines.
Oldham came back again with four direct drives and scored another quick try 2-0
Recs attacked again through Ben, Dylan Finney, Dylan Greenall & Logan before Aidan went close to scoring on the last.

Oldham again made lots of yards in every drive and it took a superb try saving tackle from Lewis, Dylan and Logan to keep them out.
An early mistake then handed Oldham the possession back and despite a strong defensive effort from Rhys and Aidan recs couldn’t stop the try 3-0
Pilks threw five strong drives at them but couldn’t find a way through.

A first tackle knock on from St.annes gave Pilks possession in striking range, Logan drove at the line, Dylan Greenall took it back to the middle before Lewis tried a looping pass to Aidan that was just off target and he couldn’t take it in.
Oldham came back firing and were soon camped on the pilks line, again some good tackles from Rhys and Ethan couldn’t quite stop the attacking power.4-0

Pilks wanted to end the quarter strong, Harry shown some nice footwork to shimmy up the field, Ellis drove the ball forward and then Aidan went probing the defensive line before the ball was lost at the line to end the quarter.

2nd quarter 8-1
Pilks knew they needed to get on the scoreboard and started to get the ball out in the tackles with a good offload from Dylan Greenall but a handling error gave Oldham the ball.
Pilks Defence sprung into Acton and shown some real grit before dragging the attacking player into touch

As Pilks celebrated Oldham returned the favour and dragged Ben over the sidelines on the first tackle. They then adapted their style of attack, sending the ball through the hands and making an overlap to fly in 5-0
Pilks tried to match Oldham and an early offload out of the tackle from logan was knocked on. Rhys, Pilks last line of defence again wasn’t able to stop the Oldham player powering over 6-0

Recs we’re running the ball in but wasn’t making a scratch on the Oldham defence, Dylan then spotted a gap and flew through to put Pilks onto the scoreboard 6-1
Lewis and Kieron were sharp in defence piling on the pressure then forcing a rare Oldham mistake.
Pilks attacked strong and looked like increasing their tally, a long range pass was knocked off course by an Oldham player but the tackle count continued and pilks were held up over the line on the last.

Pilks heads were dropping and Oldham had an easy run down the wing against a defence that was grabbing fresh air as he went past 7-1
The Boys looked lost and out of ideas in attack, getting nowhere against a St.annes defence that wasn’t budging.
Pilks we’re defending the final set of the half and despite some spirited tackles which Rhys was first man in for 4/5 Oldham still found a way to end the half 8-1

3rd quarter 8-3
Pilks started the second half with a good drive from Logan, Harry again showed some fancy footwork then a good pass out from Lewis put Dylan Greenall over in the corner 8-2
Before Pilks could think about scoring any more try’s they knew they were going to have to improve on defence and put a big effort in to stop Oldham.
Josh was first in to tackle as Pilks looked up to the challenge then forcing a pressure knock on.

Dylan again went across field probing at the defensive line before finding Harry who attacked the line, the ball went through some hands before again finding Harry but couldn’t control the ball over the try line.
Pilks again knew what they needed to do and some big big defence was shown to keep the try line in tact.
There was a knock on both ways early in the next two sets and Aidan ran the ball away from the line, Dylan Greenall threw a dummy and opened the Oldham defence. Pilks were attacking hard and fast when Aidan powered over to close the gap to 8-3
Oldham threw everything at pilks but the lads were determined to keep them out for the full quarter, keeping Oldham out for three tackles on the line with some amazing defence.

4th quarter 9-4
Pilks started the final quarter attacking but some poor ball handling gifted Oldham the ball, pilks were all defending on one side and in the words of a great philosopher “they were bunching like grapes”. Oldham sent the ball wide and strolled over to make it 9-3

Recs were guilty of being a bit too keen in attack and were on top of each other, breaking up play and ended the set, pilks
Defended well again with a good one one one tackle from Rhys once again.
Oldham didn’t give up and with a spell of pressure on the pilks line they managed to barge over to make it 9-4

Both sides started to tire and struggled to keep hold of the ball with a couple of knock on’s both ways, Harry pulled out three fantastic tackles in a row to get the ball back but a stray pass from Lewis into open field gave Oldham the opportunity to attack again.
Online defence stood strong and pilks made sure that St.annes didn’t get any more ease points.
It certainly wasn’t the best game of the season and was frustrating on a few levels, Oldham seemed to come with the game plan of slowing the game down and controlling the rucks which they executed well. Pilks have plenty to work on in training in regards to attacking style, formation, organisation and support play with a tough game coming up at the weekend.