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Match report- Dewsbury Rams 13-16 Sheffield Eagles

Dewsbury Rams were defeated 13-16 in what was an ill-tempered affair at the Tetley’s Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The Rams lead for the majority of the match, but a hectic last ten minutes saw the Eagles snatch victory from defeat.

In a first half that had more cards shown than points scored play was very stop start as both teams struggled to find much headway. However the home side did score the first two points of the afternoon when captain Paul Sykes put a kick through the sticks to put the Rams 2-0 up in the 6th minute.

The game was scrappy and whilst both sides were getting close to the line to score the first try, neither side could put a final move together to get those points on the board. In the 13th minute former Dewsbury player Joel Farrell was sin-binned when he was shown the first card of the afternoon. The Eagles had seven former Dewsbury players in their squad, with the majority of them playing against their former club on the day.

The Eagles started to put some pressure on even though they were a man down, but they still couldn’t get past a resilient Dewsbury defence. Bradley Tagg was sent off in the 21st minute after a small scuffle had broken out. Dewsbury player Chris Annakin was also sent to the dug outs for ten minutes with a yellow card being shown.

Again neither side could create any real chances and in the 28th minute Sammy Kibula was shown a red card for what appeared to be a high tackle challenge. The first half had been a rough and tumble affair with only two points being scored in the whole of the first half.

The second half opened up a bit more and the first try of the game was scored on the 48th minute when Owen Trout played a brilliant ball to Paul Sykes who scored a superb try. Sykes duly kicked over the conversion kick to make the score 8-0 to the Rams on the day.

Just four minutes later the Rams scored again when Rob Worrincy went over the line in the right hand corner for a fantastic try. Sykes again was on kicking duty, but unfortunately this time he couldn’t get his kick through the posts, that put the score at 12-0 to the Rams.

Sheffield managed to get their first try of the game on the 57th minute when Anthony Thackeray found a gap in the home sides defence to score a simple try. Pat Walker another former Dewsbury player put the kick through the posts to give the Eagles the two extra points.

The Rams scored again on the 63rd minute when Paul Sykes put a good drop goal kick through the sticks to extend the Rams lead by one point.

Dewsbury then had two more players sin-binned before the next points were scored, the first was Adam Ryder on the 67th minute, the next was Liam Finn on the 76th minute.

Joal Farrell scored a try on the 77th minute for the Eagles, and Walker again added the extra points, that put the Eagles still a point behind the Rams score. However Dewsbury just couldn’t hold on and Ben Blackmore scored the winning try in the right hand corner for the visitors just a minute later, Walker this time missed his kick meaning the final score was Dewsbury Rams 13-16 Sheffield Eagles.

Next week the Rams will face Featherstone Rovers away from home.

Attendance 977

Photography by Pete Smith freelance photographer