Hunslet (H)

[Wakefield Ram]

Back to the league and a short turnaround to a big game. Hopefully the players recover enough as this could go either way.

 

[Blind side johnny]

In his post-match interview Liam did emphasise that the league is far and away our most important target so I have no doubt that the team will be fired up for this one. I presume that Dale Ferguson was simply rested on Sunday so having him back will be a big boost. No doubt Restall will be missing but I hope that all the other players came through unscathed.

On paper we have far too much for the Hunslet team but, as is often said, games aren't won on paper. add to that a number of our ex players who may feel they have a point to prove says that this will be no easy task by any means.

Let's hope that the CC result and performance combined with a bank holiday and a few making their way from Hunslet provides for a decent crowd.

[coolie]

Dewsbury 48 Hunslet 10 (if their lucky) 

First try scorer.. Whoever is attacking Adam Ryder

Man of the match Jimmy Beckett

Sin bin Michael Knowles and hopefully Paul Sykes Doesn't rise to the intimidation, he was fabulous on Sunday

[horbury ram]

Match officials

Dewsbury Rams v Hunslet RLFC

07th April, KO: 15:00

• Referee: K. Moore
• Reserve Referee: D. Geddes
• Touch Judge 1: S. Jenkinson
• Touch Judge 2: J. Wood

[Crown Flatter]

Here’s the squad for Friday:

 

[coolie]

On 04/04/2023 at 09:10, coolie said:

Dewsbury 48 Hunslet 10 (if their lucky) 

First try scorer.. Whoever is attacking Adam Ryder

Man of the match Jimmy Beckett

Sin bin Michael Knowles and hopefully Paul Sykes Doesn't rise to the intimidation, he was fabulous on Sunday

Apparently Mr Knowles is not playing

[graham fisher]

3 hours ago, coolie said:

Apparently Mr Knowles is not playing

Picking his games maybe

[Crown Flatter]

Hunslet squad:

1 Jimmy Watson

2 Jack Render

3 Adam Ryder

4 Joe Burton

5 Kieron Lawton

6 Jake Sweeting

7 Nathan Conroy

8 Harvey Hallas 

9 Sam Hallas

10 Steve Crossley (C)

11 Josh Jordan-Roberts

13 Michael Knowles 

14 Daniel Barcoe

15 Nathan Newbound

16 Jordan Syme

17 Lewis Wray

23 Jamie Greenwood

26 Jordan Bull

28 Brad Wheeler

30 Alfie Goddard

31 Spencer Darley

 

 

[Wakefield Ram]

Quite a few former Rams. Ryder, Sweeting, Conroy, Crossley, Knowles, Greenwood.

[graham fisher]

3 hours ago, Wakefield Ram said:

Quite a few former Rams. Ryder, Sweeting, Conroy, Crossley, Knowles, Greenwood.

And Harvey Hallas.

[Crown Flatter]

It would be nice to see a team nilled, but I don’t think it will be so against Hunslet-too many ex-Dewsbury players probably wanting to show their worth and rallying their current teammates to perform against us.

Dewsbury 30-18 Hunslet 

FTS: Turner

MoM: Davies

Att: 652

[coolie]

19 hours ago, graham fisher said:

Picking his games maybe

You should never believe gobby players of other team's for reliable information

[Wakefield Ram]

Think this game will be closer than people think. We had a tough game Sunday whereas Hunslet had the day off. 

[Reverend Ram]

Sadly I have to miss this one as for the first time in a while Dews are playing at 3pm on Good Friday which clashes big time with my ecclesiastical duties though I may sneak in for the last 20 minutes (I hope I don’t have to point out why I won’t be there, even in these secular times!)

[graham fisher]

3 hours ago, coolie said:

You should never believe gobby players of other team's for reliable information

Apparently a lot of talk coming out of the Hunslet camp.

[Therein73]

we need to approach this with the same focus we clearly had against Widnes last week....... can't afford an "after the lord mayor's show" performance against a team that's coming with a point to prove and nothing to lose ..... Don't see Finny & co. letting the lads slip in to a below-par performance however

Rams 42 Hunslet 10

[coolie]

If we turn up like last week

We'll bang them, we're building week on week and getting a winning mentality. 

A lot of their players will be wanting to prove a point about their exit from the Rams.

[Blind side johnny]

Well, we should really score 38, if only to reinforce a pattern. However I have seen us deliver surprising results against Hunslet so many times, some a pleasant surprise others less so, so will predict with caution.

Dewsbury 38 - 16 Hunslet

Att: 850

FTS: Whiteley

MoM: Sykes

[NickD]

Well.  I’ll have to watch it back to be certain but that might be the worse refereeing I’ve seen in many a year.   But for incredible defence we wouldn’t have stood a chance.  Think all we did second half was tackle.   Amazing resilience given it’s only 5 days since the Widnes match.    
 

[KC Ram]

I agree,Hunslet obviously came with a game plan to hold down and slow the play, and the ref let them get away with it all game but penalised us on several occassions. Not to mention the off side when we tapped out on the 20 after they lost the ball. The touch judge also managed to miss 2 blatant forward passes in front of his nose. All credit to the lads for their defence plus keeping their cool under such circumstances.

 

[Therein73]

.... Think Jimmy Beckett summed up nicely when he said "we'll take an ugly win over a pretty defeat any day" .... Hunslet came to spoil ( in more ways than one) so let's celebrate the victory..... Ground out just 5 days after the great win last week... Well done everyone concerned 

[coolie]

Views on today

A ugly win is better than a beautiful defeat

2 points and still unbeaten 

We would have taken that before kick off. 

We didn't play well, I'm sure the players would agree with that, our defence was better than the attack, and that gave us the victory, Hunslet came to spoil, and they did at every turn, hands on the ball every tackle... Which I understand is a "6 again offence" which didn't get penalised as much as it should have when Hunslet was doing it

It will have done the players good to struggle... Nothing is gained by runaway victories... Its the trench warfare games that build tenacious players, wanting to slug out victories and do the hard yards. 

After last weeks amazing performance today feels a little bit of a let down 

We got over the line let's be thankfully with that

And now the referee assessment 

One eye, leaned towards Hunslet in most decisions, apparently an 8-2 penalty count, by far the worst referee of the season. 

 

 

And I should imagine got a lift home on the Hunslet team bus

Cornwall next week, a chance to regroup, dust down and put some points on the cornish pasties

And not serve them any Yorkshire Puddings

[muddyfunster]

Winning ugly but still winning is a great sign.

Fantastic effort

[Blind side johnny]

Come on folks, this is like reading a Leeds forum! The referee wasn't great but nor were we - ignoring that is being more one-eyed than some are accusing the ref of being. He didn't drop any balls - we did; he didn't knock any on - we did; he didn't strip the ball - sadly we did. As had been pointed out previously the referees in this league are less experienced than those in the Championship and we can't expect perfection, Suggesting that any referee is biased is simply being in denial. (Yes, I also chelped at him during the game, mainly borne of frustration.)

I thought that Hunslet's defence, especially in the first half, was very good with much quicker line speed than we have seen from some other teams in this league. They regularly made half-breaks in attack, which was worrying and, although I expected them to tire in the second half, they looked the stronger team towards the end, benefitting from a couple of weeks off. As others have commented, we are the favourites to win this league so will have a nice big target on our back - players raise their game when playing against us, and good for them. They should finish in the top three and will give us another hard match at their place.

Our defence was very good, once again, and was the reason that we won the game - deservedly in my biased view. This sort of game should actually benefit the team, just in case they were thinking they will cruise this league. I believe there was a bit of reaction to last week's match too - it was a great performance and difficult to replicate in such a short period of time, especially for PT players who will have had no rest since then. A nice long relaxing weekend, some sharp training during the week and what should (!!) be a relatively easier game next Sunday will set them up nicely for the cup game in London.

Another win, two more points - we move on.

[Wakefield Ram]

I said I thought it would be close. Following a near faultless display against Widnes, a short turnaround against fresh opponents was always likely to be difficult but credit to the boys for some relentless defence.

Hunslet succeeded in slowing our ball down and being offside but we made a lot of errors. But defence wins games and it did again today.