Regarding the team wilson started on the wing & williams was on the bench.

What about the disllowed try , ref said their player grounded the ball , clearly a knock on & we went on to touch down .Thought we came back into the game well after the disruption of injuries to Leaf & butterfield .

SKY Sports had it the other way round. Couldn't work out from their line-up who was supposed to be playing where either.



Hence my comments earlier in the thread.

Overall an encouraging game. A few mistakes and cheap penalties, 2 of which led to rams tries and 2 when we were in their 20. I didn't realise in the game that we had picked up that many injuries. Hopefully butterfield will be ok as he was having another solid game. I thought the ref was being a bit picky and as for the knock on over the line where Williams touched down that proved to be a game changer. At 24 all we could have gone on and won. Anyway, came away reasonably pleased, well done lads, coyd.

Thought we came out of the blocks today quickly and impressively...

Could easily have been 18 - nil up within 15 mins...

The ref in the first half was as good as we have had but 2nd half he just killed the game in places - I will be amazed if we see one further penalty for play the ball in the remaining season

....

That said injuries didn't help...

Some daft penalties, we must learn that laying on, reefing and pulling feet when standing up will always be penalised...

I also need to applaud Butterfield who I was critical of pre-season, but is turning into a real asset...

Overall a far better game than last week and in theory against much stiffer comp....Dewsbury will have to step up a level in that league....

A good day out COYD

It's a debating point ... on the one hand let's say what a prick the ref was with his 'you didn't play the ball right' ... 'you lifted his leg' .. pretty much trivial e that most refs would have allowed. And at the time, being angry that's how I felt.
On the other hand ... let's say the ref was right in his picky decisions and the Dons were to blame.
Right, let's give the ref the benefit of the doubt, since as far as I'm concerned he doesn't give a sh*t who wins .. he's neutral.

Now given the latter is most probably the case ... I would urge Miller to address three things at his next training session.
Tell his players to:-
One ... stop fiddling about in the tackle.
Two ... put your foot on the ball as you play it.
Three ... watch a video of Brambani's kicking game.

If that training session had come prior to this game ... I am pretty sure the Dons would have won.

Williams scored a perfectly good try and Leatherbarrow should have electric prods attached to his bolloxs until he admits he was just guessing ... which he was!

Let's move on ... (we lost a game would could and perhaps should have won) ... If we get our injured lads back coupled with Dobek and Edwards, then surely we will take some beating in our division.

Forget tales of woe against Thatto ... we will marmalise Thatto, we are just too good. The side that lost against Siddal was dreadful, that's history and irrelevant.

We need to compete against Rochdale next week irrespective of whether it's a dead rubber or not ... because if we can go there and run them close or beat them, we will know we are in with a shout in this league.
COYD

Yep. Some of the angles he was hitting the line at were excellent, he isn't the quickest fullback in the division, but he is a very elusive runner, and will get tries that way.

The only real stand out for Dewsbury was Dom Brambani, he's a cracking player at scrum half, and will win a lot of games against better opposition on his own this season.

An encouraging performance for me, but for a few key moments we could of snatched it. Was a shame that after some periods of excellent line defence we then let them through for a couple of soft tries but on the whole we looked solid under some periods of pressure.

Chris Spurr had a blinding first half for me

I went to the game expecting a substantial gulf between the two sides, and left feeling disappointed that we did not get more out of it.
Some daft penalties given away and the odd dodgy refs call made a lot of difference, but i think we can hold our heads high and look forward to the league season.
Another good effort from everyone concerned.
When you look back at where we were at this time last year it makes you think.

I also went yesterday expecting a cricket score against us and happily came away gutted knowing we could have had and deserved more from the game.

Totally different team from last week, we moved the ball around better. Our line diffence was also very good again except for to two tries from tied marker play.

Think if Wilson had scored in the corner to make it 18 nil we would be talking about a very different outcome.

Well done to all players and coaches.

Roll on the proper season.
COYD.

Did anyone get a good look at why Bovill was put on report?

I know the ref signalled trip but if no touchie comes on, no players appeall, no crowd noise then the only man who sees it hasn't got the bo11oxs the show a red card which it poor it say the least.

Yes.

Buchanan was running into the tackle, and Bovill was attempting to step across, to make the tackle. Buchanan changed direction and caught the leg of Bovill, who was trying to move back towards his opponent. In my opinion, it was accidental contact, because Buchanan just seemed to shrug it off, as well as the rest of his team mates.

The lesson from this game ... where the two teams were evenly matched ...was that the Dons lost because of the penalties they gave away.

Discipline, technique and concentration let the Dons down.
These can and should be addressed ... everything else looks good.