Oldham RL Club have handed a two-year professional contract to their 18-year-old Reserve-team full-back Ross Coates. He is the Roughyeds' fourth teenager in two weeks to join the club's paid ranks.

 

Coates, who hails from Todmorden, had previously played the 15-a-side code with Littleborough RUFC.

 

"He took to rugby league like a fish to water," said Oldham chief Chris Hamilton, "and he has the qualities we are looking for as we develop our youth policy."

 

The club's Reserve team has now produced eight young professionals in the past two years and two of them, Ben Heaton and Chris Clarke, are already in the first-team squad.