A VIEW FROM THE SOUTH STAND. By Chris Osbaldeston BARROW RAIDERS 30 DEWSBURY RAMS 42. Perhaps it has something to do with my own playing career, (mostly football and the 15 man game I’m afraid), but for some reason I always feel nervous and uncertain before every game. Today however I made the mistake of telling my companions on ‘The Barmy Army’ bus that I felt confident we’d come out on top, so I suppose you can blame me for the poor start The Rams made to today’s game. For some reason we simply couldn’t hang on to the ball, and with only ten minutes on the clock we already found ourselves 12 – 0 in arrears. The first try went to Daniel Toal, a kick through bouncing perfectly for him to gather and cross for the try and Ryan Shaw adding the conversion. Okay I was thinking, these things can happen sometimes, only I wasn’t expecting it to happen again when winger Dalton Grant collecting a kick through to race over for Raiders second try. With Shaw adding the conversion again Rams were twelve point down and it might have been worse. Another fumble saw Barrow over again only for the try to be disallowed and thankfully The Rams were able to hit back right away. It was Wayne Grady who made making the initial break before sending Anthony Thackeray racing over under the posts for their first try. With Jordan Grayston adding the conversion I felt confident that we were back in the game only to be proved wrong. Raiders second row Liam Harrison was proving to be a handful in these early stages, with the rest of his pack charging in behind him The Raiders half backs were dictating the game and it was no great surprise when Liam Campbell carved his way through The Rams defence for their third try. With Shaw adding the conversion again they were 18 – 6 in front and fully deserved to be there. Slowly though The Rams pack, well led by Tommy Gallagher, were starting to exert some real pressure, and behind them Anthony Thackeray began to dismantle the Barrow defence with a couple of quick tries around the half hour mark. Both of these were converted by Grayston to level the score, and it was Jordan’s penalty in the final seconds of the half which eased them into the narrowest of leads as the whistle went. Half time :- Raiders 18 Rams 20. It certainly wasn’t a decisive lead, though the opening moments of the half seemed to suggest different, Scott Hale collecting a cross kick to plunge over the line some five minutes in and Grayston adding another conversion to stretch the lead a little further. Barrow certainly weren’t folding, not even when Tommy Gallagher’s break was taken on by Tom Hemingway who sent Thackeray in for his 4th try of the game. Grayston’s kicking was also first class, the conversion being quickly followed by a comfortable penalty that stretched The Rams lead to 30 - 40 With the score at 18 – 32 in favour of The Rams, the game seemed done and dusted, only Barrow clearly hadn’t read the script and came storming back with a couple of quick tries from Andrew Dawson and Niall Evalds around the hour mark. With Ryan Shaw adding both conversions we were back down to a two point lead and my nerves were getting totally shredded. To be honest the uncertainty is normally one of the things I love most about our game, but I felt it was vital that we came away with a win today. Thankfully it seemed that Anthony Thackeray felt the same way because a couple of minutes later he was racing over for his fifth try of the game, an amazing feat that had me wondering how long it had been since we saw a Rams player notch up five tries in a single game? With Grayston adding yet another conversion and following that up with a penalty we were eight points up and the time was ticking away inexorably. There was just long enough for winger Dale Morton to go over for another try, and though Grayston missed the conversion, the hooter sounded to confirm the fact that Dewsbury had notched up another important victory. FINAL SCORE :- BARROW RAIDERS 30 - DEWSBURY RAMS 42. TEAMS:- Raiders :- Ian Mort; Niall Evalds; Ryan Shaw; Mal Wiper; Dalton Grant; Dom Speakman; Liam Campbell; Joe Burke; Nathan Mossop; Liam Harrison; Daniel Toal; Danny Jones; Andrew Dawson. Subs :- Joe Bullock; Mick Govin; Aaron Low; Jamie Butler. Rams :- Louis Sherrif; Dale Morton; Kieran Hyde; Shane Grady; Greg Scott; Jordan Grayston; Anthony Thackeray; Makali Aizue; Wayne Godwin; Ewan Dowes; Scott Hale; Ryan Hepworth; Callan Beckett. Subs :- Stephen Nash; Tom Hemingway; Tommy Gallagher; Matthew Haggerty. Referee :- Joe Cobb. Attendance :- 917. Rams Man of the Match :- Anthony Thackeray… that’s purely my selection by the way, but given his superb five try haul I don’t think there’ll be too much argument with it.
Posted on: Mon, 19 May 2014 15:34:45 +0000
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