Dewsbury Rams beat Oldham 46-10 last week and, ahead of Sunday’s West Yorkshire derby with top-four chasing Halifax, coach Glenn Morrison said: “We’ve got our half-backs settled now and are starting to get a few middle men back, which helps. I think everyone is buying into the systems.
“We’re starting to complete sets and when we do that, we can compete with anyone as we have done really well in the last couple of weeks.
“Halifax are going to be tough. They’ve obviously got aspirations of being in the top four but we’ve had some good results against them at our ground over the past couple of years. If we can stick to the game plan and manage the game like we have the last couple of weeks, we’ll go into the game knowing we’ll give it a good shout. If we’re not on our A game, it will be a long day at the office.”
Prop Ryan Hepworth and loose forward Aaron Brown are both doubtful with knee injuries while forward Kyle Trout suffered a knock to the head and will be assessed.
Halifax drew 12-12 at Whitehaven and coach Richard Marshall sees it as a point gained rather than a point lost. “We certainly scraped a point,” he said. “We were 12-0 behind and I thought Whitehaven were the better team for large parts of the game, which is disappointing really with us having been so good over the last month.”
“The travel and the evening kick-off were bound to catch up with us and the conditions weren’t great for both teams. We scored with the last play of the game and Steve Tyrer held his nerve and kicked the goal. It may be important for us as I think there are going to be a lot of twists and turns.
“We’ve got Dewsbury this week and it will probably be our toughest game of the season. They’re going well and will have a good attitude about them, which is fine because we need some challenges. We certainly had one last week and we’re certainly going to get one this week. It’s an important game for us.”
There are doubts over stand-off Gareth Moore (knee) and prop Luke Ambler (hip flexor).
