Dewsbury ram-page through Midlands Hurricanes for first home league win in almost a year

The comfortable win at the FLAIR Stadium continued their winning start to the season, in what was the teams’ first ever meeting, as Dewsbury scored an impressive eight tries to two to cement the victory.

Head coach Liam Finn made two changes to the squad that beat the North Wales Crusaders in February, bringing in Lewis Carr for Davey Dixon, while Connor Davies made his first appearance of the domestic season for the Rams, starting on the bench.

Dewsbury were in the ascendancy at the half time whistle with four unanswered tries, including a brace from scrum half Calum Turner.

The Hurricanes were in striking distance first as Dewsbury could not take in the high ball from the kick off, gifting them with a great attacking opportunity 20 metres from the Rams’ line, however, they could not convert pressure into points and ended their set over the touchline.

With the nerves settled it was the home team that were the first to get over the whitewash with Ollie Greensmith powering his way over from close range. Paul Sykes added the extras to make it 6-0.

Dewsbury extended their lead with a break from Perry Whitley finding Turner with a pinpoint offload. Just two minutes later Turner was in for his brace, finding himself on the end of another offload, this time from substitute Dale Ferguson with his first touch of the game.

Midlands struggled to get a foothold into the game as they were faced with some strong defensive sets from the home side. With five minutes remaining of the first half Owen Restall raced over the try line from a well-timed offload from Matt Garside, taking the half time score to 26-0.

It wasn’t so much of a game of two halves, but much of the same from Dewsbury as they scored another four tries in the second half and, despite two tries from the visitors, the victory was never in doubt.

It was in fact the visitors who struck first with Matty Welham powering his way over the line, despite being covered by Rams defenders.

The celebrations were short lived as Lewis Carr dived over in the corner to extend the home team's lead to 28 points with a touchline conversion by Sykes, to the delight of fans who hadn’t seen a home win in the regular season since their victory over Workington on April 24, 2022.

The Rams continued to turn the screw with an uncharacteristic power play, and a scoot by hooker Reiss Butterworth put the game further out of reach of the Hurricanes.

Just before the hour mark workhorse Dale Ferguson scored almost under the posts giving man of the match Sykes his easiest conversion of the game, and significantly his 1000th career goal - an impressive stat for the 41-year-old veteran of the game.

The relentless Rams’ attack didn’t falter as, on the 70th minute mark, they hit the 50-point mark with fantastic link up play by Davies and Brad Graham, with Davies taking the spoils and the four points.

The visitors had the last word with a consolation try and the second of the day for Welham, this time successfully converted by Ben Stead.

Dewsbury hope to make it three league wins from three as they travel to fellow relegated side Workington Town in their next league fixture.

Dewsbury Rams: Restall, Carr, Jordan, Greensmith, Whitely, Sykes, Turner, Beckett, Butterworth, Dixon, Garside, Graham

Interchanges: Day, Morris, Ferguson, Davies, O’Connor

Tries: Greensmith, Taylor (2), Restall, Carr, Reiss, Butterworth, Ferguson, Davies

Conversions: Sykes (8)

Penalties: Sykes

Midlands Hurricanes: Hill, Dunne, Welham, Hallett, Qareqare, Stead, Wilkinson, Moran, Windley, Clavering, Dawson, Welham, Martin

Interchanges: Dawson, Cullimore, Bowring, Bailey, Flanagan

Tries: Welham (2)

Conversions: Stead