Featherstone v Dewsbury, 14th January

[Crown Flatter]

The friendly on Sunday kicks ff at 3pm with admission at £10 for adults and free for under 16s.. What are our chances of winning? Do we need to win? The Rovers have Aekins and Hsrdcastle returning after missing their fixture against Bradford.

From our website, this is our squad:

1 – Owen Restall

2 – Perry Whiteley

3 – Ollie Greensmith

4 – Bailey O’Connor

5 – Lewis Carr

6 – Paul Sykes

7 – Calum Turner

8 – Jimmy Beckett

9 – Jacob Hookem

10 – Ronan Dixon

11 – Brad Graham

12 – Matt Garside

13 – Louis Collinson

17 – Jackson Walker

18 – Davey Dixon

19 – Travis Corion

20 – Curtis Davies

22 – Marcus Walker

23 – Bailey Dawson

24 – Joel Russell

26 – Jamie Field

27 – Joe Hird 

Dom Newton (Trialist) 

Jack Briggs (Trialist)

Prop Dom Newton was most recently at Oldham RLFC where he made 22 appearances after making his debut in March 2022, whilst Jack Briggs, also a Prop, joins us on trial from Hunslet ARLFC where he featured in their recent Yorkshire Cup victory.

For me, I think it will be a loss:

Featherstone 42-12 Dewsbury

FTS: Beckett

MoM: Turner

Att: 1312

 

 

[POR]

9 hours ago, Crown Flatter said:

 The Rovers have Aekins and Hsrdcastle returning after missing their fixture against Bradford.

That's true C but both on the bench Caleb only got back in the country on Friday  and it will be Josh's first game since his stroke in July 

Incidentally we  have a squad of 18 but at least 4 will be missing instead we will have 5 trialists 3 amateurs and 2 who have never played in the championship but not to worry we have DR with HKR oops they're on training camp in Tenerife so we have two of their academy lads making up the numbers so a score line 42-12 somewhat flatters us

[Crown Flatter]

2 hours ago, POR said:

That's true C but both on the bench Caleb only got back in the country on Friday  and it will be Josh's first game since his stroke in July 

Incidentally we  have a squad of 18 but at least 4 will be missing instead we will have 5 trialists 3 amateurs and 2 who have never played in the championship but not to worry we have DR with HKR oops they're on training camp in Tenerife so we have two of their academy lads making up the numbers so a score line 42-12 somewhat flatters us

We’ll see, not that it matters in this game 

[Blind side johnny]

I will be absent, I'm afraid, but look forward to reports from our observant contributors. (That's you CF!)

[SUPERSTUD]

Still laughing at Fev last try being allowed.

Edited January 14 by SUPERSTUD

[SUPERSTUD]

Today’s game. This as we are all by now probably aware was not the Featherstone money bags team of the past few years. We showed some decent stuff in patches but improvements are required in various areas.

Edited January 14 by SUPERSTUD

[Crown Flatter]

2 hours ago, SUPERSTUD said:

Still laughing at Fev last try being allowed.

I couldn’t tell as it was too dark in that corner for me to observe down in the Dewsbury Supporters’ corner. 
 

I did though, like others, have a good laugh at the shocking attempt of a conversion from near the post for Day’s try. 

[POR]

1 minute ago, Crown Flatter said:

I I did though, like others, have a good laugh at the shocking attempt of a conversion from near the post for Day’s try. 

You got to understand C  our 3 goalkickers were sat in the stand so today it was rock paper scissors to see who had a go 

[Crown Flatter]

Forced into travelling to Featherstone to air my views on the match for BSJ’s benefit, here is my very late report:

I reckon we won the toss because we kicked off up the hill and got straight at the Rovers attacking line. For the first twenty minutes or so we gave more than we got, attacking their right side, but, hard as we tried, just couldn’t score, with Brad Graham I think, coming closest to touching down. The odd move to our right flank saw. the ball dropped close to the line on one occasion. Rovers should have scored in the right corner, but a forward pass to the winger saw him drop the ball at the line. On 24 minutes however, the inevitable happened, we let them score; Rovers won a set restart and one of their forwards managed to get the ball away in three man tackle and their hooker scored, with the conversion making it 6-0. We held out for another ten minutes, but a useful break by Aekins and the finish by Jones for his second try made it 12-0. Forced to drop out a few minutes later, some good passing to their left allowed Gale to score in the corner for an unconverted try. Half time arrived with the score on 16-0.

The second got off to a great start for Dewsbury with a nice finish by Lewis Carr on 42 minutes when he sidestepped the defender to crash over thanks to a break by O’Connor. Sykes, after a long chat with the referee about something, missed the conversion. A couple of minutes later we were in again with Graham scoring on our left side, but again, no conversion. Dewsbury, at this point, were enjoying  life with the ball and more good work by O’Connor with a fine break and the final pass to our backer-up-in-chief, Owen Restall, who scooted over under the posts for Sykes to convert, thus making the score 16-14. Whether it was a flurry of substitutions, or a  mixture of good play by Fev and weak tackling by Dews, they were able to score three more tries, one in the top right corner, another by Day close to the posts, followed by that really poor attempt to score the conversion. The final try came in the last five minutes, when after we failed to release a tackled player, the resultant penalty brought the final score in that dark top corner, so dark for this observer, that I couldn’t tell what happened. 
 

The final score at 28-14 didn’t look so good for us, but on the whole I think we played well and it was an enjoyable match in cold, crisp conditions.

Oh and by the way, I was always going to the match!

[Therein73]

I think that's a fair summing up CF : Neither team at full strength but still a useful pre-season run out and maybe a reminder that our concentration levels will need to be a lot higher than in League 1...... Joe Hird looked to have potential, Curtis Davies was very busy, good to see Matt Garside getting game time under his belt, Hookem and Walker showed their promise and Sykes reminded everyone just how valuable he is still to this team. 

The only players I can think who haven't had a run yet are Morris and Copley - maybe we'll see them Sunday - and we definitely missed the power of Whiteley and Dixon, plus (for the first 30 minutes or so) Greensmith ......  There's a lot of true competition for places in this squad and that can only be a good thing - providing everyone is willing to fight for a place.

Some glimpses of flowing open play and a behind-the-back pass from Walker stood out ........ An enjoyable afternoon - Not bad for a Tenner

[Wakefield Ram]

Some nice tries from Rams, the last Fev try looks dubious.

 

 

Edited January 15 by Wakefield Ram

[RugbyPowelly]

I thought we played ok. The backs look dangerous and could score a try out of most half opportunities.

I think the forwards need more work, a lot of missed first tackles and we didn’t wrap the tackle up quickly allowing Fev to break out too often + not enough yards made making the backs work too much for those half opportunities.

But with a good old big forward as head coach he should be able to develop the pack better than anybody and so lots of hope for the season ahead. But we do need to sort the first hits out + driving the ball forward more.

 

It seems clear it’ll be a tough season but we need to turn those inevitable few games that are close into wins.

Edited January 15 by RugbyPowelly

[graham fisher]

Didn’t go to the game so only the highlights to go on. Scored 3 nice tries through backing up so that’s a positive for me. 
And with a penalty count of 6-5 it looks like we might have mastered the heart of playing the ball with our feet as well,that’s definitely a positive

[Therein73]

Apart from being in touch and not grounding the ball, I can't see anything wrong with Fev's last try ..............

 

[Crown Flatter]

4 hours ago, graham fisher said:

Didn’t go to the game so only the highlights to go on. Scored 3 nice tries through backing up so that’s a positive for me. 
And with a penalty count of 6-5 it looks like we might have mastered the heart of playing the ball with our feet as well,that’s definitely a positive

They were good tries that we scored and I think Bailey O’Connor acquitted himself very well with his breaks and I thought Marcus Walker played well too, although this would not be noticed on the highlights.

We did play the ball correctly, but got caught a couple of times not standing square at the PTB. Not that it matters, but I had the penalty count of 7-4 in favour of Fev. I didn’t check the set restarts, but suspect we received less help there.

Edited January 16 by Crown Flatter