Oldham stroll through Paris

Rugby League

Oldham 24 Paris St-Germain 6

The siege of Paris is going to take some lifting, a 10th successive defeat last night at Boundary Park leaving them so precariously placed one spot away from the Super League trap-door.

The shame of it from a French point of view was that a halfway decent display could have been enough to bring them a much-needed victory, but they lacked all shape and sophistication in their approach to the game.

Paris had their early chances but it was Oldham who took the lead, their captain Martin Crompton, scoring a try of stark simplicity by darting through a ragged defensive line from first receiver.

The French side were showing little of the improved form that ran Warrington so close last week, but they did almost score when it took a video replay to rule out Freddie Banquet's touchdown in the corner.

They did draw level with an equally poor Oldham, however, when Todd Brown spun in the tackle to get his pass to Vincent Wulf, with Banquet landing the conversion.

Paris' limited success owed a good deal to their tactic of slowing down the play-the-ball. The referee, Robert Connolly, finally lost patience and sent Jason Sands to the sin-bin; almost immediately, Adrian Belle went in by the corner flag from John Clarke's clever pass to restore Oldham's lead by half-time.

Deon Bird, newly arrived from the Brisbane Broncos, could have put Paris back in front soon after the break, but his kick-through ran a foot too far. Howard Hill had a try disallowed for Oldham but their substitute, Joe Faimalo, succeeded where he had failed, wrestling his way over some close range to give Oldham a decisive lead.

Perhaps they were inspired by the re-emergence of their bear mascot in his original moth-eaten costume, after an unhappy first half in a new outfit that cramped his style.

Faimalo's personal inspiration took him over the line again for a second try.

Clarke was the next to expose the weakness of Paris' tackling near their line. Unless they tighten up on this, and several other aspects of their play, before next week's crunch match with Workington, the only side below them in the table, they will find themselves in even deeper trouble.

Oldham: Cowan; Myler, Patmore, Topping, Belle; Maloney, Crompton; Gildart, Clarke, Temu, Lord, Munro, Bradbury. Substitutes used: Hill, Crook, Guy, Faimalo.

Paris St-Germain: Lucchese; Bomati, Bird, Vergniol, Banquet, Brown, Entat, Shead, Wulf, Sands, Parry, Pech, Chamorin. Substitutes used: Smith, Wilson, Doslem, Bloomfield.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).