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Greenwood previews Widnes trip

Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood insists that his team is not just going to Widnes to make up the numbers, and that they are going their for the two points.

The Rams will take on the Vikings for the first time since 2011, where the results that season were a draw and a loss for Dewsbury.

The Rams drew with the Vikings 34-34 at the Tetley’s Stadium early on in the 2011 season, they then went and lost 36-22 over in Widnes at the back end of the campaign.

Eight years on and much has changed at both clubs, however Greenwood expects his team to turn up and give the Vikings a challenge.

He said: “We are obviously disappointed with the last couple of performances and results, you can’t get away from that. There were quite a few positives in both games though that not a lot of people are probably seeing at the moment.

“Approaching half time on Friday we were playing ok, and then that sucker punch happened, as they scored just before half time. Fair play to Batley they showed a lot of team spirit in that second half and probably bullied us a little bit. Monday was different and a different game, Leigh are probably a level above us quality wise at the moment. We were giving them so much ball near our line they would have scored points against anyone in this division. Looking back there was some big efforts defensively from some people in that game.

“It’s going to be similar to Monday in that we are underdogs, what I would say is that for me nobody in this division is unbeatable. However with that you need to do things right, and to go and win these games and Monday we didn’t do that.

“Widnes are a good side, a full time team and at home on their pitch they can cause you a lot of problems, they will throw a lot of attack at you. They also have the full time size and physical aspect that you don’t come across too often, so we need to bring a 9/10 performance as individuals and then as a team to get something.

“At home they seem to be good, but in the last few games away they have been beaten by both Batley and York so they aren’t unbeatable, but then again I don’t think anyone is in this division. Everyone has lost at least one game, you look at Toulouse and Sheffield, and even Toronto are just winning in tight games. However you do need to perform well in games otherwise teams can put a big score on you with their players. I don’t see anyone turning up playing 9/10 and then people being beat comfortable, and that is our challenge coming out of Monday and Friday.”

Greenwood gave an update on injuries after the busy Easter period, and is pleased that the squad came away with only bumps and bruises.

He commented: “There is nothing major as in people had to be carried off during the game, after those two games in such a short space of time people have picked up bumps and bruises. You can’t really do in training what you want to do because of the time you have, it’s about been smart and then improving on things that we need to.

“You have to be smart as well, there are some guys in our squad that are young and aren’t quite ready to play in the Championship regularly, so we aren’t just going to throw them in. We need to be smart about it and we want to be competitive in every single game, we certainly don’t want to be just going their and making up the numbers. It would be silly to go and do that, but we will check on people and see what they can do and if they can’t physically do it then they won’t be in.”