LIONS’ HEROIC DEFENCE AFTER 2-MEN DISMISSALS

16 September 2024

DEWSBURY RAMS 16 SWINTON LIONS 28

IAN RIGG at FLAIR Stadium, Sunday 15 September 2024

The 11 Lions held out to claim the victory as discipline went to the wall at stages. It was a strong start from Swinton forcing the Rams into two goal line drop-outs in the first three minutes before Josh Eaves was held up on five minutes. It was all Lions pressure and again the Rams had to be on their game to stop an attack down the left. The visitors eventually took the lead on 14 minutes when Jack Stevens made a break down the middle before putting in a nice kick for Jake Spedding to chase and score in the right corner and Dan Abram converted. Three minutes later they were in again when Jordy Gibson floated a kick to the left and Jayden Hatton collected it in the air to score and claim his 100th Lions career point with Abram again on target with the conversion. Abram added the third try on 22 minutes when the Rams defence fumbled a Gibson kick near their own line, and he went in at the corner and added the conversion. The Rams hit back two minutes later when Ronan Dixon powered over under the posts with his first touch and Paul Sykes converted.

A fight broke out on the half hour when Gav Rodden was shown a red card for use of the head and Dixon was shown yellow for retaliation. Plenty more went on in the melee and others were perhaps fortunate to avoid cards. Within a minute Rams were over again when Keenen Tomlinson scored in the corner from a kick and Sykes converted. Zeus Silk was held up six minutes from the break and then forced a goal line drop-out, but they lost the ball in the first tackle and Spedding picked up the ball to race 60 metres before being held down in the Rams twenty and this saw Bailey O’Connor sent to the sin-bin. With seconds to go before half time the Lions were awarded a penalty right by the posts and Abram converted it.

Dixon returned from the sin-bin after the break, but within a minute of the restart he found himself back in it again for a late hit on Gibson. The Lions came strong again and on 46 minutes Gibson put a kick to the left corner and Hatton had two bites at the bouncing ball to score in the corner, but Abram was off target. It was a case of same again three minutes later when Hatton scored off another Gibson kick but again Abram missed the conversion. Rams tried to come back again, and Jackson Walker went close. Then as the Lions tried to clear their line Richard Lepori got involved in a tackle and he was also red carded for use of the head. There was still over 20 minutes to play so when Dewsbury scored again through Ollie Greensmith the final hooter looked some distance away for the Lions. Sykes could not convert that one, and Swinton’s defence was heroic for the remainder of the match. In the closing stages both Gibson and Stevens tried drop-goals to give the Lions the security of a 13-point lead, but both sailed wide.

LIONS
1 Dan Abram
25 Richard Lepori
3 Jake Spedding
4 Jayden Hatton
5 Rhys Williams
18 Jack Stevens
7 Jordy Gibson
10 Gavin Bennion
14 Josh Eaves
13 Mikey Wood
11 Gav Rodden
12 Mitch Cox
16 Lewis Hall

Subs (all used)
33 Leon Cowen
26 Ant Walker
24 Jordan Case
8 Liam Cooper

Tries: Spedding (14), Hatton (17,46,49), Abram (22)
Goals: 4/6
Dismissals: Rodden (30) Headbutt, Lepori (58) Headbutt

DEWSBURY RAMS
4 Bailey O’Connor
5 Lewis Carr
22 Marcus Walker
3 Ollie Greensmith
37 Keenan Tomlinson
6 Paul Sykes
9 Jacob Hookem
16 Elliot Morris
33 Reiss Butterworth
17 Jackson Walker
11 Brad Graham
30 Dale Ferguson
13 Louis Collinson

Subs (all used)
36 Luke Mearns
26 Jamie Field
10 Ronan Dixon
32 Zeus Silk

Tries: Dixon (24), Tomlinson (31), Greensmith (59)
Goals: Sykes 2/3
Sin-bin: Dixon (30) Fighting, Dixon (41) Late Hit

Penalty count: 6-5
Half-time: 12-20
Referee: Ben Thaler
Attendance: nk