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Dewsbury Rams 16 - 24 Batley Bulldogs

Match report by Ossy.

Driving home last night I kept thinking 'Good Friday? Hah nothing good about that,' but once I'd had a bit of time to think about it I was being unfair. For one thing we watched a good, competitive game, played hard, and on the whole, fairly. There were some strange decisions from the referee, and hardly any decisions at all from the touch judges, but that's about par for the course these days. Listening to the 'South Standers', offside apparently only applies if you're wearing Red, Amber and Black.

But what a start! After the early exchanges, the Rams opened the scoring, Kane Epati collecting Dean Lawford's cross kick to dot down with obvious delight, Francis Maloney adding the goal. An exchange of penalties gave both sides a spell on attack, but it was the Rams who added to their lead, another huge, spiralling kick from Lawford was again won by Epati who dropped over the line. Franny's second goal extended the lead to 12 - 0 and the Rams fans were in Fantasy Land.

However, almost unnoticed, Richard Chapman had already left the field, apparently with a repeat of the broken arm that's kept him out of the side for so long already this season. Cruel luck for a key player in his benefit year, and the second serious injury to hit the side in the last two games. I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to send our best wishes to Chappy at this time.

Back to back sets for the Dogs kept the Rams under pressure and, although Kane took the high kick well on the 5th tackle, Kris Lythe wrestled the ball away from him and went over close to the posts. The goal was added by Ian Gordon. 25 minutes, and it really was game on. Encouraged by their try, the Dogs were coming hard and 7 minutes later the scores were level, Lythes darting over from dummy half, and Gordon adding the kick. Half time, 12 - 12, and all to play for in the second period.

Only a couple of minutes into the second half, the Dogs were ahead, Martin McLoughlin steaming onto a Paterson pass to go over close to the posts. Gordon goaled and the Dogs were 6 points to the good. By this time both sides were going at it hammer and tongs, though the Dogs forwards, particularly Simpson and McLoughlin were making far more ground than the Rams pack. They also seemed to be playing out their sets more efficiently, and put us under increasing pressure.

After spells of attack from both sides it was the Rams who scored next, Franny putting Danny Maun over in the corner. Unfortunately it was too far out for Franny to add the conversion that would have levelled the scores. 20 minutes to go, only two points in it, and still the game was end to end, though the Dogs forwards still seemed to be edging the battle. With two minutes left was Lythes who went over to seal matters with his third try after good work from Lindsay. Gordon added the goal, and with only a minute or two on the clock the Dogs were out of reach.

A disappointing result from the Rams viewpoint, two points we possibly should have won have gone begging, but the Dogs just about deserved their win. Overall the attitude from the Rams was far more positive than it seemed to be for the Sheffield game. The tackling was also better, though it still left room for improvement, and nobody shirked the battle. I think we were let down by the occasional blunder, and didn't complete our sets well enough.

Still, it's the first game of a long season and we've got a point to get us on our way. It's not going to be easy to survive in NL 1, but anyone who thought it was going to be easy was only fooling themselves. We'll lose some games we would expect to win, and win some we were expected to lose, but nobody should judge how the season will go on what we've seen so far.

For me, the last two games have suggested a possible weakness in the pack, but it's still too early to say for sure. I know Andy and the boys will be eager to put things right on Monday. A harder game maybe, but we're playing with the big boys now and nothing will come easy.

Rams: Ian Preece, Kane Epati, Danny Maun, Alex Bretherton, Bryn Powell, Francis Maloney, Dean Lawford, Andy Hobson, Richard Chapman, Dominic Maloney, Kevin Crouthers, Andy Spink, Josh Weeden. Subs: Liam Finn, Rob Kelly, Martin Robinson, Liam Crawley