Dewsbury Rams recently announced the signing of speedy winger Lewis Carr.
Carr who has come out of Betfred Super League side Castleford Tigers academy is a highly rated youngster and will be part of head coach Lee Greenwood’s 2021 man squad.
We spoke exclusively to Lewis to find out more about him.
On signing for the club and why he wanted to come here, Carr said: “Well when I first came to the stadium and Lee Greenwood showed me around and explained the situation to me it all interested me. He explained that the togetherness of the team was great and that they’re a bunch of hard working players here.
“I felt that this club would be the best place for my development as the competition would be good and means I’d have to always keep working hard. The facilities are also great with the gym, wrestle room and 3G pitch.”
On coming out of the Castleford academy, Carr believes he learnt a lot at the Super League club but is now ready for a new challenge.
He said: “Well I’ve experienced a lot so far, I broke the academy try scoring record for Castleford in my 2nd academy year scoring 39 tries in 21 games.
“I had a great experience with Cas, I enjoyed my time there, I had three good years with the academy and two good years with the first team.
“I got the 18th man squad place against Wigan Warriors for the first team. I also played two friendlies for them, one against Featherstone and one against Widnes, they were both great experiences and I learnt a lot from the coaching staff. A special mention has to go to Tony Smith as I feel as though he was the person who helped me become the player I am today.”
Carr has previously played at the York City Knights on Dual-Reg and has played against the Widnes Vikings giving him valuable knowledge of what it takes to become a Championship player.
He said: “I played two games on Duel-Reg for York last year and played a friendly for Cas’s 1st team against Widnes and found the step up quite interesting from the academy games at Cas.
“I thought I played ok but I feel it’s a real test for me and a test I’m looking forward to taking on and hopefully getting a lot of experience from it.”
The youngster also has international and county appearances under his belt.
“I got in the England 25 man squad, played both games against Lancashire for Yorkshire and I also played for Yorkshire against Australia school boys.”
Although Carr believes his main position is on the wing he has experienced what it’s like to be a fullback.
“I feel as though my main position is a winger but in my last academy year I played full back and did a good job there. At amateur level I was always a halfback/fullback but my main roles are either winger or fullback.”
Finally Carr is looking forward to playing at the Tetley’s Stadium next season. He’s also excited about the challenges he’ll face playing in the Championship.
“My ambitions for this team are to work hard, and every time I get a chance to show Lee and the other boys that I have what it takes to hopefully get in that starting line up every week.
“I just want to prove that by working hard and putting that extra work in, it will help me perform to the best I can be and hopefully get me a starting shirt.
“It’s been mentally draining having to train constantly and not have anything to train towards. So there’s nothing I’m looking forward to more than getting that Dewsbury shirt on and playing on that pitch hopefully in front of the fans.”
