Dewsbury Rams' spirited fightback proves in vain after tough first half against London Broncos
A spirited second half performance gave Dewsbury Rams head coach Paul March hope for the season ahead as his team gave Championship side London Broncos a run for their money in their first round proper 1895 Cup tie.
But March will have been frustrated at his side’s first half display as they left themselves with too much to do after going in 26-0 down at the break.
They fought back to keep their higher division opponents scoreless for the whole of the second period, but eventually went down to a 26-16 defeat to end their participation in this competition for another year.
Dewsbury’s bright start was ruined when a high kick was fumbled and led to Marcus Stock evading several would-be tacklers on a charge to the line.
The visitors came close to hitting straight back as Louis Collinson spilled the ball close to the line and the Broncos capitalised with a second try with Lewis Bienek powering over.
When Luke Polselli raced in and Chris Hellec added his second conversion it was 16-0 after 24 minutes.
Two more home tries followed before the break with Alex Walker scoring both and Hellec tagged on the extras to the first of them to make it 28-0 at the break.
The Rams were again being punished for ill discipline as they were the previous week and went down to 12 men towards the end of the half when Jack McShane was sin-binned for a late tackle on Curtis Davies.
After March’s half-time team talk Dewsbury toughened up their defence after the break and survived strong pressure to deny their hosts further points.
The game turned 12 minutes into the half when Polselli’s pass was intercepted and the Rams raced downfield. Although a cover tackle denied them they were able to put their first points on the board soon after with Tommy Brierley scooting over. Jacob Hookem added the conversion.
Further pressure came to nothing for the visitors until late on when George Senior raced over in the corner.
They then added a third try in the final minute as Liam Copland charged in and Hookem kicked his second goal with the last kick of the game.
It had been a much improved second half display with minimal errors and more of the same will now be asked of the players as they concentrate on League One now for the rest of the year.