‘They have improved significantly’ - Liam Finn expecting Rochdale to be ‘stronger’ in ‘different’ Friday night game

The Rams ran in nine tries as they comfortably beat Rochdale 52-4 in March. And although both sides’ campaigns have seemingly taken different paths, with Dewsbury still remaining unbeaten in the league and Rochdale sitting in sixth place having won only four of their ten games, Finn is expecting Friday evening’s visitors to be ‘stronger.’

He said: “They are a lot stronger than what they were when we played them earlier in the season. They have got quite a few loans and dual reg players in. They will be a decent challenge.

“They are not that team anymore. They have improved significantly and have got a little bit of confidence and have got some quality young players from Super League clubs. They ran Doncaster pretty close on Sunday and were winning at half time.

“They will be hard to prepare for because we don’t know exactly what team is coming but we need a performance ourselves. We feel like we have dipped a little bit over the last month, so we’d like to pick those performances up.”

Finn admitted the performance in the 30-6 win against Cornwall last time out “wasn’t brilliant” but key trio Matt Garside, Ollie Greensmith and Connor Davies were all rested for the 369-mile trip, while Paul Sykes will return from suspension. There may also be space in the squad for long-term absentee Andy Gabriel who has returned to training following nine months out with cruciate knee ligament damage.

“We held a couple of lads back because of the short turnaround,” Finn said. We rolled the dice and mixed the team up a little bit to have some fresh bodies for Friday, so that was a positive.

“We’ve got Sykesy to come back in and Sam Day too. And it will be nice for Andy Gabriel to get back out there if he can.

“He has been a big player for Dewsbury over the last three or four years. Dewsbury fans will be fully aware of what he does for the team, carrying the ball out of the back field. He has been looking sharp in training so we are hoping we can get him out there.”

Finn, however, revealed that Dale Ferguson could be out for a few weeks after injuring his knee in the win at Cornwall.

The Rochdale encounter is one of two Friday night games that the club have purposely scheduled into the 2023 calendar, with third placed Oldham visiting next Friday, June 23.

Finn said: "We just asked for a couple of Friday night games this season, just for something a little bit different and for the lads to get a little bit of time back on a weekend, and just to see who turns up on a Friday and see if there is any interest in it.

“If this weather keeps up it will be nice to get out and watch rugby on a Friday evening.”