A VIEW FROM THE SOUTH STAND by Chris Osbaldeston DEWSBURY RAMS 6 WIGAN WARRIORS 58. Driving to the ground last night it felt as though I’d been looking forward to this game for months now, but however long the wait might have been, the game made it all worthwhile. Okay so the final score might have been rather disappointing, but for the first hour or so this game was an absolute belter. The atmosphere in the ground was as good as anything I’ve seen there over the past few seasons. Even the new terrace at the Owl Lane end of the ground was full of visiting supporters, and with the weather staying good, The South Stand wasn’t overly crowded either. Ten minutes into the game though I wasn’t feeling quite so positive, two early tries from Joe Burgess, both of which were converted by Matty Smith, saw The Rams twelve points in arrears and I was trying to work out what that rate of scoring would mean over the full eighty minutes. As things turned out I was worrying about nothing. Perhaps The Warriors thought they were onto a good thing and relaxed a little too early, though actually I reckon it was simply our squad upping their game. It was an end to end contest at this point with both sides making chances only to come up against solid defences, though Dewsbury suffered a severe blow when Aaron Brown left the field after only nine minutes. Warriors suffered their own blow though when Wigan winger Josh Charnley was injured and had to limp from the field following a good break from Greg Scott. The Rams were more settled by this time, they were playing well, moving the ball around and seemed to have scored close to the posts, only for the try to be disallowed on the intervention of the touch judge. It was a cracking game, though two strong defences kept the score at 0 – 12. With half time looming, Scotty was almost over again only to be held short as the whistle sounded. If the stadium was buzzing at half time, it almost exploded early in the second period when Rams winger Dale Morton went over in the Main Stand corner, and a superb touch line conversion from Tom Hemingway narrowed the gap to 6 – 12. For five minutes or so we dreamed the dream, but this was Wigan one of the top clubs in the country, and they weren’t about to fold. Their superior class and fitness was beginning to tell, though it was a further five minutes or so before Joe Burgess went over for his third try of the game. Warriors were playing with more confidence now, and when Dan Sarginson notched up their fourth try the writing was on the wall. Prop Scott Taylor impressed me with some of his running, and though Ryan Hepworth also made his presence felt with some determined bursts, the Wigan tries were beginning to flow. Burgess notched up his fourth try of the game and Iain Thornley added two of his own in the 65th and 75th minutes. Scrum half Matty Smith went over with some ten minutes left on the clock before adding his 6th conversion, and further tries went to George Williams and Blake Green whose 3rd conversion completed the scoring just as the hooter sounded. Okay, so we were well beaten in the end but certainly not disgraced, a fact that was made clear by the reception given to the teams by both sets of supporters. It took quite a while to make it round to the Royal Suite after the game, mainly due to the number of times we stopped to shake hands and exchange a few moments chatter with The Warriors fans. For me this was what the game is all about, but now it’s back to the realities of the League. We’re off to play Swinton Lions at The Leigh Sports Village next week and we’ll be there to cheer the guys on. Dewsbury Rams :- Kieran Hyde; Dale Morton, Karl Pryce, Shane Grady; Greg Scott; Aaron Brown; Anthony Thackeray; Ewan Dowes; Wayne Godwin; Ryan Hepworth; Lucas Walshaw; Scott Hale; Rob Spicer. Subs :- Tom Hemingway; Stephen Nash; Ryan Wright; Matthew Haggerty. Wigan Warriors :- Tony Clubb; Josh Charnley; Joe Burgess; Iain Thornley; Ryan Hampshire; Blake Green; Matty Smith; Scott Taylor; Michael McIlorum; Ben Flower; Liam Farrell; Dan Sargenson; Sean O’Loughlin. Subs :- Jack Hughes; Eddy Pettybourne; George Williams; Jordan James. Dewsbury Man of the Match :- Anthony Thackeray. Referee :- Joe Cobb. Attendance :- 3,054
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:59:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015