Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood was impressed with his sides attitude and commitment on Boxing Day against Batley, insisting there is much to improve on and the game gave him food for thought.
The Rams drew 14-14 against the Bulldogs, it was the first time in seven years Dewsbury had not lost a Boxing Day fixture.
On the performance of his side Greenwood said: “They got the penalty goal in the end to level it, but they gave us three shots at the finish to put a one pointer over them. We should have done that too, so the disappointment from us is that we got so close to their line for the last few minutes and it was level. I would have liked us to have done that a bit better but we didn’t do.
“It’s one of the things we need to improve on as well as a whole host of other things, but I think if you look at the result, you don’t want to lose these games. In a way it’s immaterial the result because it’s all about performances and getting ready for the league games.
“Once you get into the game of course you want to win it, and we put ourselves in a position to do that. We messed up a few times and gave them a few opportunities, they took the two in the end which showed they didn’t want to lose it either. Like I said we had a few good chances there, and should have hit the one pointer but didn’t.
“Batley have got a lot of seasoned campaigner’s in their team, where we had a few lads who haven’t played Championship rugby regularly year on year. I thought we stood up well to them, physically I am happy with where we are at. Ball in hand first half towards their line was pretty poor, we strung a few good minutes together just after half time, which I thought was basic rugby done really well. Unfortunately after that we sort of moved away from it and things conspired against us with mistakes too which just drains your energy.
“I would say there was some things better than our last Boxing Day game, certainly the six weeks of preparation we have done and the attitude and commitment from the lads before the match. The positive talking during the game, at half time and after the match is great. We now want that to translate in to league games and results, we lost last year we drew this time around so you could say that is progress.
“There is a lot to work on, but you always find that where you think you are alright in some areas and when it comes to a match find out you need to work on them, and visa versa. You feel you need to work on other areas but when it comes to a match, find out you were ok in those bits. It gives us plenty of food for thought does the Boxing Day fixture.
“We now have five weeks to go until the season kicks off against Leigh, we have two more friendlies away at Keighley and at home to Bradford. So yes we will be working hard in training to brush up on some of the things we didn’t seem good at. I liked the effort of the lads and for a Boxing Day game if you bring the effort that’s all you can ask for.”
“I expect Batley to improve, the officials to improve and we will improve as the season goes on.”
