O'Hare hat trick vital difference!

Mar 4 2002 By Chris Roberts, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Yet in the first quarter they were caught cold three times by O'Hare, although for his first two tries two of his teammates deserve most of the credit.

For try No1, it was Stanley Gene who made it possible.

Collecting the ball from a scrum on halfway, the Papua New Guinea international tore out of a tackle and raced clear before feeding O'Hare to finish off in the corner.

Chris Thorman was unable to add the touchline conversion, but five minutes later worked his magic in open play to provide O'Hare with his second.

A brilliant run across the face of the Oldham defence left the opposition mesmerised and a final exquisite dummy produced a gap which gave O'Hare just enough space to exploit and charge across.

Again Thorman was unable to add the extras from wide out, although on this occasion his effort hit a post.

But it proved to be third time lucky for the goalkicker after O'Hare completed his hat trick with a superb solo try.

When the Welshman collected a long pass from Rob Roberts out on his right wing, there seemed to be no danger for the visitors.

But suddenly, a slight gap opened up in the defensive line and O'Hare was through it at lightning speed.

He then took on and rounded former Giants full-back Mark Sibson to score another memorable try behind the posts.

At 14-0, the foundations for a good victory appeared to have been laid.

But Oldham were having none of it.