‘They will be fired up’ - Liam Finn wary of Rochdale response against Dewsbury Rams

Finn’s men came out on top, 38-18, when Rochdale visited the FLAIR Stadium in the third round of the Challenge Cup earlier in the month.

But the final scoreline didn’t tell the whole story as Rochdale drew the second half 18-18, despite losing two men to the sin-bin.

Ahead of Sunday’s re-match, Finn said:

“It will be a tough game again because they will be fired up and they will be excited about their second half performance against us.

“They had two men sin-binned but they still came back into it. They will think they have got a chance because they came back into it that day with less men than us.

“We will have to be on our best game again this weekend to make sure we keep improving.”

The Hornets followed up their impressive second half display in the cup with their first league win of the season at Midlands Hurricanes last weekend.

And, with the additions of Sheffield duo Lewis Peachey and Joe Hird to Rochdale’s middle ranks, Finn says Dewsbury “will have to match fire with fire”.

He said: “They won down there (at Midlands) and scored in the first set of the game, going the full length of the field from the kick off. They are obviously getting a bit of confidence to play as well.

“They’ve also got a couple of lads from Sheffield Eagles and I know they think very highly of them and they’re trying to get them so game time.

“It stiffens up their middle unit a fair bit so we will have to match fire with fire down the middle and be as clinical as we can with the ball.”

Finn also confirmed that centre Caelum Jordan, who scored in the Rams’ excellent 6-25 victory at Workington Town to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season, is likely to miss this weekend’s fixture due to a groin injury.