Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood has had his say following the defeat to the Leigh Centurions by 40-0 on Sunday afternoon.
On the fixture he said: “We probably made it too easy for them and I want to turn that around here and make us tough to beat, and at the moment we are not that which is a disappointment. I would have liked to have been in the game late on and we just weren’t and that is a few times now where that has just happened, where the game was already over and it was a damage limitation job really. I can’t fault the players effort in the second half as we had a lot of defending to do and I thought when we went down to 12 men we did it pretty well to be fair and we matched them physically. However that needs to come from the kick off and if it doesn’t then you have lost these games before you start.
“These teams are coming here and they should expect to get a tough game because it’s a tight field and predominately we are quite a big side and so they come to expect a battle. However it is too many times now where right at the start of games we haven’t been quite ready for it, in long patches we look as good as some of these top teams that are coming here. I can’t change how much other teams can spend that is par for the course and just what happens, but I would really love to see us take a team on from start to finish where we get fired in and see what happens, but we don’t. We start soft and wonder what the other teams are going to be like and then by the time you know it you are a couple of scores down.
“We need to dust ourselves down and we have had a good chat about how lads prepare for a game and I am here to help them too. It is another disappointing defeat on the scoreboard, but for me Leigh could give Toronto a real good run for promotion this year. So I knew they were a good side and it was disappointing watching the 80 minutes as you want to be able to properly compete in the game. There was far too many drop balls which gave Leigh a lot of field position and then even if they don’t score it takes a lot out of you. Then when we had the ball down Leigh’s end we didn’t do anywhere near enough with it.
“In some of the early games in the season we ran them close, the weather has changed a little bit and the pitch has now firmed up. Whether some of the lads were feeling the work of pre-season or whether we caught teams by surprise I am not sure. I can’t answer for the other teams, but I know in some of the games I am looking at such as the Halifax, Toulouse and the game today we have lost it by half time really and then you are playing catch up. Teams are not taking us lightly here and we could do with one or two of them doing that, they are coming here with a big side and a good game plan and ready to defend tough and we are finding it difficult to combat it.
“I honestly do not believe there is a 40 points difference between the two sides, I will harp back to the start of the game and the lads preparation. I don’t know what they were expecting but I know what I was expecting from Leigh, and I will look at my own job in the week and see where we can improve.
“If anyone doesn’t think Leigh aren’t a top side in this division and we are a struggling one at the moment then I will show you a liar. Leigh are in good form and spending a lot of money, and have got the effort and attitude too. I thought at times the effort was there especially in the second half where we responded well. We conceded one bad mistake in the corner, but overall Leigh had a lot of the ball but didn’t do much with it. So it is in there we know we can do it but it’s doing that at the right times and you need to do it from the start because you can’t fall a few scores behind these teams at the start, and also scoring a point always helps to win a game.”
