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[Ossy]

I apologise in advance for any errors that might appear in this report. It's not easy pre season, when even the official teamsheets seems to bear little resemblance to the players on the pitch.


DEWSBURY RAMS 10 WAKEFIELD WILDCATS 30.

One of the problems with pre season friendlies is that it can sometimes be difficult for the fans to assess their worth... or lack of it. On the whole the Rams support was disappointed with their team’s lacklustre performance two weeks ago at The Mount, but those I spoke to after today’s game seemed a lot happier about things.

Okay, so it was a(nother) defeat, but for me the big difference about today’s game was that the Rams were up for it this time, and scrapped from the first whistle to the last. Mistakes were made by both sides, at this stage that was hardly a surprise, but the defence was pretty solid and, certainly in the second half, they matched their Super League opponents for effort if not for skill.

It took them a while to get going though, and the Wildcats certainly had the better of the early exchanges with tries from Millard on 10 minutes, and Hyde around the 25 minute mark, both converted by full back Blaymire.
By this time the Rams were coming more into the game, Faal breaking down the right only for his pass to go to ground. With 5 minutes left in the half a try from Ferguson was also converted by Blaymire, stretching the Wildcats lead to 18 – 0 at the break.

The second half opened with a good break from Obst, and though Dewsbury had a spell on attack, a loose pass in midfield was pounced on by Wakefield and some slick passing saw Murphy go over under the posts making the conversion a formality.

After having two ‘tries’ chalked off by the referee, the Rams finally got on the board after several minutes of pressure, going left from a 10 yard scrum for Scott Turner to slide over in the corner for a well deserved try.
The game was swinging from end to end now, and with penalties beginning to go the way of the Rams, it was Wakefield who found themselves under pressure. On the half hour mark a kick through was touched down under the posts by Luke Menzies, Pat Walker adding the conversion to narrow the gap still further.

With the seconds ticking away, a huge kick down the wind looked certain to lead to another Rams score, only for the ball to roll into touch at the last. Right away the Wildcats took advantage, a break down the South Stand side leading to a final, converted try from Veivers.

So, our pre season preparation continues with a second defeat, albeit a very different performance to the one we saw up at The Mount. Even without inspirational skipper Dominic Brambani, (sidelined with Laryngitis), the Rams often tested the Bulls defence to the maximum, and had at least 2 more tries disallowed. There's still a lot of work to be done before the season proper opens with our first trip down to Toulouse, but I reckon we saw enough today to approach things with no little confidence.

Dewsbury Rams: Craven, Wainwright, Faal, Turner, Buchanan, P Walker, Wandless, England, Horton, Hirst, Spicer, Bibb, Roberts, Hayes, J Walker, Menzies, Tebb, Tonks, Glassell, Cosgrove, Brooks

Wakefield Wildcats: Penny, Dean, Millard, George, Obst, Korkidas, Rinaldi, Henderson, Johnson, Murphy, Mariano, Veivers, Howarth, Davey, Wildie, Hyde, Potts, Spiers, Trout

Referee :- Mr. C Sharrad.

[guest from down under]

Excellent view of the game ossy , i should just point out that several of the rams sqaud were laid low with tonsilitis aquired from contaminated water and even a few of those who turned out yesterday were not well .