Oldham 10 Blackburn 18

6:23pm Tuesday 4th March 2008

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BLACKBURN stretched their remarkable unbeaten league record to 16 games which proved to be the perfect parting gift for Ferdie Naude.

The popular South African forward is returning to his homeland having played an integral part in what will certainly be a title-winning season for Blackburn.

Chairman of Rugby, Gareth Dyer praised Naude, who came on off the bench to play a cameo role in a hard-fought victory.

He said: "Ferdie has been great for us and has worked very hard for the team. He has played his heart out for the Club and both he and the Club are hopeful he will return next season."

Up against a team fighting to stay in the division, Blackburn - who were forced in to a late reshuffle - rolled their sleeves up and matched their hosts for grit and determination.

Blackburn started the stronger after some good work by Barnes and Pickles, hooker Paul Millea continued his impressive try scoring run after some good driving play.

Skipper Paul Bleasdale missed the conversion. Burn continued to spread the ball but Oldham benefited from an seemingly obvious knock-on and picked up the loose ball to score from 30 yards.

The kick was missed and the teams tied 5-5 at the break.

Blackburn started with the wind on their backs and were rewarded with a second try from the front row, this time from the hard working prop Ali Reay after a clever move had put Millea clear.

Bleasdale missed the conversion but added a penalty to open up a crucial eight point lead.

The visitors then wrapped up the game when Dino Radice rounded off an impressive backs move.

"We came up against a team fighting to stay in the division and despite some nervous parts we did enough to win," added Dyer.

"We had lost a bit of momentum having not played last week and having had a few changes from our last game but we pulled together and ground out another win.

"I thought Andrew Sutcliffe and John Beaston had superb games whilst Paul Millea and Danny Lambert showed us their attacking skills.

"The rest of the lads all played solidly and thats been the hallmark of our season so far.

"It's another two points and we move onto Workington at home next Saturday."

BLACKBURN: McCarthy, Millea, Reay, Miller, Beeston, Copping, Jarrold, Pearson, Bleasdale, Radice, Bromley, Sutcliffe, Lambert, Pickles, Barnes. Replacements: Calcutt, Naude, Barron.