Glenn Morrison’s Dewsbury Rams tasted their first defeat at Oldham last week: “They are the games you need to win and we just didn’t get a chance,” he said. “They played really well, as we knew they would. The penalty count was 8-2 against us after 30 minutes and we were 20 points down by then – game over before it began.”
Looking ahead to the challenge of Whitehaven he said: “They’ve always been strong when they’ve come down here, we’ve had some good battles. They’ll be itching for a game. We need to bounce back, get the intensity and the energy back that we’ve been lacking.”
Second row Scott Hale, hookers Dom Speakman and Tom Hemingway, centre Karl Pryce and loose forward Aaron Brown could all be available for selection this week.
Whitehaven’s game against Featherstone Rovers last week was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and coach James Coyle has been struggling this week: “We haven’t been able to train because of the state of the pitches in Cumbria,” he said.
“It’s going to be tough at Dewsbury because they will be looking for a reaction after being beaten by Oldham last week. They will want to get back to winning ways. It just looks like they didn’t turn up last week and if you don‘t turn up you’re going to get beaten in this league.”
Coyle hopes to have centre Scott McAvoy back this weekend.
