We’re only three games into the new League season, and already things have a depressingly familiar look about them; at least as far as the injury front is concerned. As if going to Hilton Park wasn’t bad enough without Bryn Powell, Josh Weeden; Dean Lawford; Kane Epati and Dominic Maloney, we also lost Mark Field to a knee injury after only 20 minutes. At that point we were only 6 – 2 down, and Mr. Leahy had just given the worst decision I’ve seen from any referee so far this season. Mind you, it’s early days yet. more

 “Don’t judge us on this result,” was the reaction of coach Brendan O’Meara after the Rams lost their opening reserve team match of the season.

“The lads have only been together one day and have not had any trial matches,” explained O’Meara who is in his first season as reserve grade coach with the club.

O’Meara saw his side battle hard in an evenly contested opening quarter. Although the Centurions had opened the scoring as early as the 12th minute it wasn’t until six minutes later that they added a second.
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The Rams' next home match against Batley Bulldogs on Thursday 10th April (7.30pm) will be shown live on Sky Sports.

Reduced Admission
Admission prices for all parts of the ground will be £10 adults, £5 concessions, £2 Under 16s.  Seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Bring a friend for free
Dewsbury Rams season tickets holders can bring a friend along to the game free of charge.  Just use your season ticket as normal for you and you friend.

As soon as I’ve checked out the team sheet I always take a look and see which ref we’ve drawn. There are several now that make me groan when I see the name, and I’m afraid Gareth Hewer is one of them. Ever the optimist I always like to think that “maybe things will be different today,” and somehow Mr. Hewer always manages to disappoint me. I don’t think I’m asking for all that much, just even handedness from the match officials every now and again, but even that seems beyond them at times. more

Match Report Coming Soon

Dewsbury Rams home replica shirts will be on sale from Easter Monday onwards. The shop will be open from 1.30pm before the match and also after the match.

Only S, M, L and XL sizes will be available on Monday, the other adult and kids sizes should go on sale the following Monday (1st April).
Sizes:- 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, S, M, L, XL, XXL, 3XL

Adult shirts will be £40 and kids shirts £30.
DREMA Members receive a discounted price of £32 on adult shirts (max 2 shirts per DREMA Number)

All credit to Hunslet, but I’m afraid today was a huge disappointment to me, both on the pitch and off. The players hardly covered themselves with glory, but nor did certain elements of this rather meagre crowd. Supporters have every right to voice genuine criticism, but when some of that abuse is directed towards family members then it strays into the realms of the unacceptable. At least, it does in my book, and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that way. more

Dewsbury Rams were paired away to local rivals Batley Bulldogs in the fourth round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.
The 4th round fixtures will be played on the weekend of April 19th and 20th, which has been changed from the original scheduled date of 6th April.

View the full draw here.

Pupils from Carlton Junior and Infants School in Dewsbury got their hands on the Northern Rail Cup last Friday when Dewsbury Rams players Kane Epati, Tere Glassie and Aaron Trinder dropped in to see them as part of the ‘Northern Rail Cup Momentum Tour’.  more

Twenty minutes into this game, the Rams were trailing 20 – 6, and if I’d closed my eyes I could almost have been back at Featherstone. The only difference being that this time we were playing a team of so called amateurs. Actually in that first session, we looked like the amateurs, and Oulton made us pay, though it was 7 minutes before they started turning the screw. more

This wasn’t a game I’ll remember with any great affection. A month ago, I suggested that the Ram’s victory over Fev might be the wake up call the Rovers needed, and maybe this was one we needed. Reading through the notes I made during the game, I see – ‘11minutes, Rams still on the bus…’ a situation that continued to be the case for much of the game.  more

Dewsbury Rams have been drawn away to Leeds based amateurs Oulton Raiders in the 3rd Round of the Carnegie Challenge Cup.  The match will be played on Sunday 9th March with a 3pm kick off at the Tetley's Stadium.

The full draw can be seen here
 

Dewsbury Rangers Junior Football Club would like to thank the supporters, directors, officials and players of Dewsbury Rams and Batley Bulldogs for their superb generosity at our bucket collection on Sunday that raised a fantastic £208.70. We would also like to thank the Rams for allowing our bucket collection to take place
 

Rugby League is a hard, full blooded game often played on the edge of the rules. It certainly helps though to have both teams, and the match officials, playing to the same set of rules, and I’m afraid this wasn’t always the case this afternoon. I’m not pointing the figure at anyone in particular, because we’ve all seen worse, but for me it spoilt what could have been a cracking game between two evenly matched sides. more

The Rams Reserves friendly against Featherstone Rovers scheduled for this Thursday 28th February has unfortunately had to be cancelled.

For some reason I always prefer to sleep on a game before submitting a match report; an instant, knee-jerk reaction isn’t always the best, and I think this counts double in respect of yesterday’s game. I even arrived at the South Leeds Stadium with conflicting emotions; I wanted a convincing victory from the Rams, preferably without humiliating the Hawks. In the end I got both, but I’m still not happy because, for the second week on the trot, we didn’t play very well.

This is where the good night’s sleep comes in. I wrote my report last night, but when I came to reread it this morning, I found I disagreed with almost everything. The result is a complete rewrite. more

Fans of both sides have been on a bit of a high all week following good wins against Hunslet and Fev respectively, though it was still a little early in the season to read too much into those performances. In fact yesterday’s result has merely served to muddy some already murky waters.

The Rams brought in Mark Field and Terre Glassie for their first game in the Red, Amber and Black in an error-strewn performance fought out beneath the blue skies of Batley. Don’t you just love winter football? more

Well that’s it, the first truly competitive game of a brand new season, though I’m not sure the Fev supporters will see it that way this morning. My initial euphoria lasted no more than 3 minutes, which was the time it took Fev to get on the board with a try from scrum half Joe McLocklan.

In these early stages it was one-way traffic, all heading in the direction of the Rams try line. Luck, and good defence, held the line and in the end it was the Rams who hit back. A storming run from Andy Bostock down the Main Stand side, and a smart inside pass put full back Tom Colleran over for the Rams first try. Patch Walker’s conversion eased them onto a lead they never really looked like losing. more

Tries: Colleran, Powell (3), Langley (3), Bostock, Weeden, Maloney, North and Broady
Goals: Walker (4), Finn (2)

Dewsbury Rams' Ryan Sheridan has dreamt up a unique idea that could help tackle a problem area of rugby.
The Rams assistant coach and former Super League star has designed an innovative tackle shield that gets players into the perfect position to make a powerful, safe and legal tackle. more

The Rams have made another new addition to the squad in the form of 26 year old prop David Rourke from Batley Bulldogs who will add more reliability and a lot of experience to the pack.

Sky Sports' selection of National League matches for the 2008 season have now been confirmed.  Dewsbury Rams have been selected for 2 matches, both against Batley Bulldogs, at home on Thursday 10th April and away on Thursday 5th June, both 7.30pm kick offs.

We are pleased to announce a new addition to the squad in the form of 27 year old centre Chris Langley from Batley Bulldogs.  He was 2nd top try scorer for Batley last year scoring 11 tries from 21 appearances and he is a strong acquisition for the squad.

For this, the second successive home friendly against Super League opposition, the main surprise was the inclusion of both Andy Bostock and Dean Lawford on the team sheet, though the latter played no part in an interesting game. Alex Bretherton was also at the game with his wrist in plaster after dislocating and fracturing his thumb during last week's game against the Bulls, an injury that will keep him out for the next eight weeks. Better it happened at this time of the season rather than after the League games get under way I suppose. more

If any of us needed proof of the gap that exists between Super League, and NL 1, this game provided it in abundance. Despite fielding a side made up largely of Academy players, along with a sprinkling of players with Super League experience, including full back Dave Halley, Fijian winger Semi Tadulala, and prop Matt James, the Bulls always looked to be in control of this one. more

And so another season gets under way with a deserved win for the Rams. A win that seemed unlikely on the 25th minute when winger Scott Childs finished off a sweeping, length of the field move that stretched the Bulldogs early lead to 18 - 4. For the first game of the season, it was an enjoyable and hard fought game played out in front of a decent Boxing Day crowd of 3,017. more

The 2008 National League fixtures have now been announced and can be viewed here.  A downloadable fixture list is also available.

Dewsbury Rams have completed the signings of three more players for the 2008 campaign. 

22-year-old 2nd rower John Gledhill has previously played with Wakefield and Rochdale and was voted under 21 Player of the Year and Players' Player of the year at Wakefield.

Winger Gary North spent the end of last season at Dewsbury and impressed with his performances in the Academy to earn himself a 1st team contract.

Young utility back David Clayton has joined the Rams from Bradford Bulls' Academy on a two year contract.  David is a product of local amateur club Dewsbury Moor, where he was noted for his appearances at half back. He did, however, feature predominantly on the wing for the Bulls Senior Academy side.

Dewsbury Rams are pleased to announce the signing of Cook Islands international Tere Glassie on a two year deal.  Tere brings a lot of experience with him and his hard hitting approach is just what we need.  While he is aggressive on the pitch, off it he is a gentlemen and a great role model for our younger players.

 Tere spent last year with Castleford Tigers and was part of their promotion winning team, he previously played at Leigh where he was a try scorer in their successful Northern Rail Cup final win over Hull KR and has also played at Oldham. Tere has played first grade in the NRL with Souths and has additional Australian experience with Balmain Tigers, Newtown Jets and Wests Magpies.

New Zealand prop Aaron Trinder has finally put pen to paper and completed the move from Halifax to Dewsbury, signing a two-year deal with the Rams.  Aaron is one of the best props in National League One and we are very pleased to have him at the Rams for the next two seasons.

Andy Spink has been released from the 2nd year of his contract after deciding to retire from rugby league due to a long term neck injury which has plagued him throughout the year.  Andy made a good comeback from injury towards the end of the season but he feels that the best thing for him would be to retire.  We would like to wish Andy all the best for the future.

The 2008 Rams Squad is shaping up well with the majority of last year's squad re-signing for next season.

New signing - full back Mark Field from Wakefield Wildcats - is now joined by centre Eddie Mack who is returning to the Rams for his 2nd spell.  Eddie regrets leaving the Rams when he did but he has been outstanding in his time at Hunslet and is happy to be back with us.  We are currently still in negotiations with a number of players who we have pinpointed to target.

The 2008 squad so far includes:
Mark Field, Bryn Powell, Kane Epati, Eddie Mack, Andy Bostock, Chris Hall, Austin Buchanan, Pat Walker, Dean Lawford, Dominic Maloney, Liam Crawley, Richard Chapman, Luke Haigh, Liam Finn, Joe Helme, Jake Wilson, Martin Robinson, Alex Bretherton, Josh Weeden

Ian Preece and Danny Maun have left to join Batley, Andy Hobson has joined Leigh, Rob Kelly has gone to York with the hope of getting more first team rugby, Kev Crouthers has been released from his contract but has not yet joined any other club and he will continue his shoulder rehab at Dewsbury in the pre-season, Danny Ratcliffe has been released to play for Thornhill

All the results here

The Senior Academy are in action again this Saturday (15th Sept) against Widnes Vikings in the elimination semi-final.

The match kicks off at 12 noon and is being played at Widnes RUFC, Heath Road, Widnes, WA8 7NU.
click here for directions

The Rams went into this game knowing that, barring a minor miracle, their season ended today. A perfect opportunity then to play some enterprising rugby, to prove a few doubters wrong and, most importantly, to finish the campaign with a flourish? We hoped so.

There were a few changes to the team sheet. Pat Walker missed his first game since making the number six shirt his own, presumably unable to shake off the leg injury that prematurely, and some may say mercifully, ended his outing at Doncaster the week before. Josh Weeden deputised. Many had expected Dominic Maloney to return to the pack for the final game of the season and, depending on who you talk to, his final appearance in a Dewsbury jersey. It was, however, a mix of aggression and direct running that filled the number eight and ten shirts respectively, with Andy Hobson and Joe Helme starting in the front row. There was some good news, Martin Robinson returned to his usual starting spot in the second row alongside Kevin Crouthers with Luke Haigh, Rob Kelly, Keegan Hirst and academy starlet Jake Wilson making up a very youthful looking Rams bench. more

Couldn’t make it to Leigh this weekend, so instead I took the chance to watch the next generation of Rams battle Whitehaven in the Academy playoffs; and what a performance, particularly in the second half sunshine.

The first ten minutes were pretty even as the two sides felt their way into the game, but it was the Rams who struck first. Slick passing out of the tackle gave winger Morgan Starkey room to squeeze over in the corner. Two minutes later it was second row John Oakes, bursting down the middle and handing on for Ryan Glynn to finish the move with a try beneath the posts, before adding the conversion to his own try. more

Pardon me if I repeat that score line again – I’m still having problems believing what my eyes were telling me at the Keepmoat Stadium this afternoon.

Doncaster 51 – Dewsbury 18, and yes, we got exactly what we deserved, particularly in that last thirty minutes. Actually though, the writing was on the wall from as early as the fourth minute when our defence went AWOL wide on our left allowing Donny to sweep through at will, winger Darren Woods finishing the move with a try behind the posts, and scrum half Luke Gale adding the extras. more