Rams battle hard for victory in closely fought contest against North Wales at FLAIR Stadium.
After a fortnight-long break, the Rams returned to action against North Wales Crusaders knowing that a victory would be difficult against a Crusaders side that had improved vastly from the team they had beaten convincingly in the reverse fixture on the opening day of the season.
In what were tough, wet conditions at FLAIR Stadium both sides struggled early on for momentum, the Rams made a couple of breaks through the North Wales defence but couldn’t manage to get the opening score.
The Rams had been posing some questions down their left throughout the opening phase of the game and this eventually paid off when Calum Turner chipped down the line to Perry Whiteley who went over for the first score of the afternoon, which was converted well by Paul Sykes.
The visitors battled back well though and thought they’d scored through ex-Ram Jordan Andrade who was just held up over the line, whilst down the other end of the field, Owen Restall was held up shortly after.
The Rams then went down to twelve men just before the half-hour mark after Jimmy Beckett was sin-binned for a high shot. However, far from deter them, this seemed to spur them on and Bailey O’Connor added a second try after a Paul Sykes grubber wasn’t dealt with by the Crusaders defence.
Just on the stroke on half time, Paul Sykes successfully kicked a penalty goal after a penalty was awarded for offside, giving the home side a fourteen-point lead at the break.
After a tense start to the second half with both sides making errors, it was clear that the next score was going to be crucial and it came for the Crusaders when Owain Abel slid along a grubber kick down the wing, which was collected by a Crusaders player who then returned the ball to Abel to score.
With the lead now only ten points the Rams elected to go for goal when they were awarded a penalty twenty metres out after a tip tackle, which Paul Sykes duly converted.
Although Sykes then missed an opportunity with another penalty attempt, the win was sealed after Sykes converted a penalty goal following on from an almost NFL-style obstruction by a Crusaders man when the Crusaders were coming away from their own goal line.
After the game Rams Head Coach Liam Finn said, “It wasn’t very pretty out there today but under the circumstances it wasn’t ever going to be, the conditions have been horrendous for two days it’s been non-stop rain so it was never going to the best.
We were just focused on getting the lead early and then defending well, which we knew would give us a good platform to get the win from.”
Our next game sees us head to the South Leeds Stadium to take on Hunslet RLFC in a clash of epic proportions on Sunday 30th July (15:00).
Dewsbury Rams (18): Restall, Carr, O’Connor, Greensmith, Whiteley, Sykes, Turner, Beckett, Butterworth, Maher, Garside, Graham, Collinson.
Interchanges: Summers, R.Dixon, Walker, Davies, Littlewood (18th).
Tries: Whiteley (24’), O’Connor (37’)
Conversions: Sykes (2/2)
Yellow Card: Beckett (28’)
Penalty Goal: Sykes (40’, 64’, 77’)
North Wales Crusaders (4): Abel, Hughes-Lynch, Oakley, Taylor, Massam, Fletcher, Gibbons, Houghton, Pemberton, Barratt, Foster, Ellis, Forster.
Interchanges: Nash, Andrade, Costello, Hazzard, Rainford (18th).
Tries: Abel (61’)
Conversions: Abel (0/1)
