Featherstone pick up their tenth league victory of the season against a determined Rams side at the Tetley’s Stadium.
Following on from defeat in our last outing against London Broncos, the Rams were under no illusions as to how difficult this game was going to be against the table toppers and Super League hopefuls Featherstone Rovers. Lee Greenwood added to new faces to his starting line-up with Aiden McGowan in on loan from Huddersfield Giants and Samy Kibula also on loan from Bradford Bulls.
Despite any pre-match notions about the game being an easy victory for Featherstone it was actually the Rams who got the first score of the game with Samy Kibula crashing over from short range. This was as good as it got unfortunately, as Featherstone then ran in four converted tries through Ben Hellewell, Mark Kheirallah (2) and Jesse Sene-Lefao. The Rams then managed to answer back debutant Aidan McGowan weaving past a couple of Featherstone defenders to pick up his first of the afternoon. As the half came to Samy Kibula was sin-binned and Featherstone managed to add another converted try, a hat-trick for Kheirallah, to make the half time score 10-30.
The second half unfortunately started as the first one ended for the Rams as Morgan Smith went over for the visitors from close range. This seemed to spark something in the Rams as on the back of a lovely 40-20 from Dom Speakman, Davey Dixon went over in the corner and had a sustained spell of pressure. This didn’t last long however as Riley Jacks went over for Featherstone following a break up the field.
The Rams then pulled a score back as Speakman sent through a grubber close to the line, which was collected and put down by Jordan Schofield.
As the game was entering the final ten minutes there was still plenty of action unfolding, first Morgan Smith went over for Featherstone after a scruffy play of the ball. Then Connor Jones was sent to the sin bin for Rovers after a dangerous tackle on the returning Ross Peltier. The Rams then rounded off the scoring with McGowan scoring his second try after a lovely scoot from dummy half.
After the match, Rams Head Coach Lee Greenwood said “We knew how difficult today was going to be but we wanted to give them a proper game. I think overall it was a good performance from us, we kept it going when it looked like it would be easier to let them roll over us and for us to lose our confidence. We didn’t do that though, the players wanted to give everything.
“The next block of fixtures for us looks slightly easier and I know if we can commit to that level that we did today in the next few weeks, then we’ll certainly pick up a few wins.”
Today’s Rams Man of the Match as selected by Fleetmaster was Aiden McGowan, who is sponsored by Mick and Tina Pryor.
Our next game is back at the Tetley’s Stadium on Sunday 22nd May against Barrow Raiders.
Dewsbury Rams (26): McGowan, Gabriel, Ryder, Greensmith, Dixon, Sweeting, Sykes, Peltier, Speakman, Kidd, Kibula, Tomlinson, Knowles
Interchanges: Smith, Stevens, Beckett, Schofield
Tries: Kibula (5’), McGowan (30’, 78’), Dixon (52’), Schofield (63’)
Conversion: Sykes (3/5)
Yellow Card: Kibula (39’)
Featherstone Rovers (46): Kheirallah, Briscoe, Leilua, Hellewell, Hall, Smith, Jacks, Cooper, Jones, Sene-Lefao, Bussey, Davies, Moors
Interchanges: Wildie, Lockwood, Ferres, Hepi
Tries: Hellewell (8’), Kheirallah (15’, 19’ 39’), Bussey (22’), Smith (47’), Jacks (60’), Smith (68’)
Conversions: Hall (7/8)
Yellow Card: Jones (73’)
Attendance: 1859
