Rams beaten by Doncaster at Eco-Power Stadium.
After last week’s disappointment at Swinton, the Rams were back on the road again, this time to the Eco-Power Stadium to face Doncaster RLFC, a setting where the Rams lifted the Betfred League One trophy less than eight months ago.
Doncaster started brightly and had the majority of early pressure, which told when ex-Ram Josh Guzdek went over for the first points of the game after six minutes.
However, the Rams answered straight back through Jacob Hookem who threw a brilliant dummy and ran though the gap he created in the Doncaster defence to score his third try of the season.
Doncaster then continued to have the majority of pressure on the Rams line, which held out well, that was until Misi Taulapapa scored acrobatically in the corner. The home side further extended their lead scoring back-to-back tries after Brad Knowles scored under the posts.
The start of the second half brought more Doncaster pressure and they further extended their lead when Joe Lovodua scored after an offload by Pauli Pauli set him free. Pauli Pauli then got a try of his own five minutes later, to all but give the home side the win.
With twenty minutes to go, it looked as if Travis Corion was going to run the length of the field to score after an interception on the Rams’ line but the referee pulled play back and awarded a scrum for a Rams knock-on, from which Craig Hall evaded a would-be defender to score the Dons’ sixth try of the afternoon.
Brad Graham managed to get a second score on the board for Dewsbury after a high kick to the corner from Calum Turner was spilled by the Doncaster defender. However, it was Doncaster who’d finish the scoring with almost the last play of the game, when Connor Robinson wriggled over to score.
After the game Rams Assistant Coach Paul March said, “It’s very disappointing this afternoon, we’ve come here with high expectations to get something out of the game, we didn’t start to well but got ourselves back in to the game.
Unfortunately after that we made error after error and in the end the amount of defensive work that we had to do took its toll on us.”
Our next game sees us back at FLAIR Stadium on Saturday 4th May to face Toulouse Olympique, with kick off at 18:00.
Doncaster RLFC (38): Guzdek, Briscoe, Lynne, Hey, Taulapapa, Hall, Robinson, Knowles, Burns, Matagi, Pauli, Ferres, McConnell.
Interchanges: Foster, Smeaton, Lovodua, Hepi, Holdstock (18th)
Tries: Guzdek (6′), Taulapapa (23′), Knowles (26′), Lovodua (44′), Pauli (49′), Hall (62′), Robinson (79′)
Conversions: Robinson (5/7)
Dewsbury Rams (12): Turner, Whiteley, Greensmith, M.Walker, Corion, Sykes, Hookem, Beckett, Davies, J.Walker, Garside, Graham, Collinson.
Interchanges: Dawson, Hird, R.Dixon, D.Dixon, Morris (18th).
Tries: Hookem (11′), Graham (71′)
Conversions: Turner (2/2)
Attendance: 1,296
