Rams beaten in second pre-season outing by Featherstone Rovers at Millennium Stadium.
Following on from the Boxing Day draw against Batley, the Rams continued their pre-season schedule heading to the Millennium Stadium to face Featherstone Rovers on a bitterly cold January afternoon.
The Rams started the game well and had long spells of pressure in the Rovers half, but it was the hosts who scored the first try when a clever offload found it’s way to Connor Jones who scored the first points of the game.
Just ten minutes later Jones scored his second of the afternoon with an easy run in after a break through the middle from Caleb Aekins. Then to add to the Rams’ problems, Featherstone added another score just before the break through Gareth Gale to give them a sixteen-point lead at half time.
After a disappointing final ten minutes of the first half, the Rams knew they needed to start the second half well and did so after a wonderful finish from Lewis Carr got them their first points on the board. Then from the restart a penalty gave the Rams good field position and they scored their second when Brad Graham managed to wriggle over from close range after a great offload.
On a roll and attacking down the slope, the Rams scored a third when Bailey O’Connor broke the Featherstone line and fed Owen Restall to score. However, just five minutes later and somewhat against the run of play the home side extended their lead to six after Greg Minikin scored just to the right of the posts.
With just under fifteen minutes remaining and both teams making a significant amount of changes, Brad Day added a try for Featherstone after bouncing his way out of a few Rams tackles. Manoa Wacokecoke then rounded off the scoring for Featherstone after he just about managed to squeeze his way over in the corner.
After the game Rams Head Coach Dale Ferguson said, “We showed signs of what we’ve been trying to put together in pre-season carrying on from the Batley game, but at the same time there were some parts of the performance we didn’t so we’ll be looking to put that right in training before Huddersfield next week.”
Our next game sees us back at FLAIR Stadium on Sunday 21st January to face Super League side Huddersfield Giants in our final pre-season friendly with kick off at 14:00.
Featherstone Rovers (28): Aekins, Wacokecoke, Wynne, Minikin, Gale, Bowes, Lacans, Springer, Jones, Kamano, Day, Tomlinson, Arnold.
Interchanges: Hardcastle, Harris, Roberts, Lauer, Hassard, Abson, Farrar, Smith.
Tries: Jones (24′, 34′), Gale (39′), Minikin (61′), Day (68′), Wacokecoke (76′)
Conversions: Lacans (2/3), Wynne (0/1), Hardcastle (0/1), Other (0/1)
Dewsbury Rams (14): Restall, Carr, M.Walker, O’Connor, D.Dixon, Sykes, Turner, Beckett, Davies, Hird, Gardside, Graham, Dawson.
Interchanges: Collinson, J.Walker, Field, Greensmith, Hookem, Newton, (trialist), Briggs (trialist), Russell, Corion.
Tries: Carr (43′), Graham (47′), Restall (56′)
Conversions: Sykes (1/3)
