Hornets take a trip to the seaside for derby against Oldham

Photo: Jackie Meredith

Rochdale Hornets and Oldham Roughyeds played out a draw in March

Rochdale Hornets take a trip to the seaside on Saturday as they visit Blackpool for their first appearance at the Summer Bash, where they will take on local rivals Oldham.

The two Championship sides will kick-off the extra round of league fixtures in the second tier’s answer to Magic Weekend.

It will be the third meeting of the two sides in 2017, as they contested the Law Cup in pre-season before a league fixture at the Crown Oil Arena.

Back in January Hornets won the Law Cup with a 24-12 win at Bower Fold, thanks to tries from Chris Riley, Jordan Case, Gary Middlehurst and Lewis Galbraith.

The rival teams shared the points in the the league at the Crown Oil Arena, when a late rally saw Hornets rescue an unlikely point.

With five minutes left on the clock they were down by 12 points, but then Gavin Bennion crashed over before Ryan Maneely raced in with just two minutes remaining to make it 26-26.

This time out they will meet at Bloomfield Road, and Hornets full back Riley says he is looking forward to the occasion and is expecting a tough derby clash when they go head-to-head with the Roughyeds.

He said: “They’re always tough physical games and I know both sides will be up for it.

“We’ve had a tough few weeks but the boys have been as positive as every to turn it around.

“We’ve got a young squad and not many of them have had the chance to play at this kind of event so we’re going to try to push ourselves forward to get the result.

“We’d like to turn our form around this weekend and there’s no better place to do it than at Summer Bash against our local rivals.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than playing Oldham in a derby at Bloomfield Road and we’re really looking forward to it.”

Hornets have been boosted by the return of four players to their 19 man squad, as coach Alan Kilshaw is able to call on Ben Moores, Jo Taira, Gavin Bennion and Lewis Galbraith.