Dewsbury Rams Reserves 8 - 58 Leigh Centurions Reserves

Match report by Paul English, League Express

“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’Meare 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.

The Rams didn’t see much ball for much of the remainder of the first half though winger Karl Robinson was able to claim a try just before the break.

Leigh were repelled for the opening ten minutes of the second period before scoring four tries in a 12-minute spell.

Adrian Holdsworth went blind from a play the ball to score the Rams’ second – a deserved score for the centre who had been bundled into touch with a similar effort earlier.

In all whilst the final result was disappointing there was plenty for O’Meara to build on in the weeks ahead.

“There were a lot of young kids with a few fringe first team players, the score was no indication – I thought that we competed well apart from a few dumb things,” he said.

“Leigh just kept coming and coming and in the last 20 minutes we could have dropped our heads but we didn’t.”

In modern day Rugby League a 58-8 score is not always a drubbing and if the Rams players can learn from the experience then maybe they will be more competitive in the forthcoming fixtures. As O’Meara concluded: “We are a work in progress.”

Rams: Gary North, Karl Robinson, Morgan Starkey, Adrian Holdsworth, Tom Kittrick, Luke Broady, Bartley O’Brien, Jason Southwell, Luke Chapman, Chris Green, Liam Crawley, Allister McMaster, Ryan Glynn. Subs (all used): Liam Brooke, James Fleming, Tom Wall, Anthony Harris.

Rams scorers - Tries: Robinson, Holdsworth.

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