Workington Town suffered a second successive home defeat when they lost 38-22 in their Championship clash with Dewsbury Rams.
The score line wasn’t a good reflection on the game as Dewsbury had been 38-0 in front when Town finally realised what a rugby ball was for over the last 10 minutes, scoring their four tries.
The Cumbrians did, however, have to go into action without players who have started the season well.
Evan Lawther wasn’t fit enough for the 21 following a hamstring issue that forced him off last week. Jake Bradley was also nursing an ankle injury whilst Guy Graham was unavailable.
Spencer Fulton also failed a head injury assessment against Thunder and will follow the RFL protocol before he can return.
The opening 10 minutes proved to be a real old fashioned arm wrestle as the two sides battled for domination.
It was Dewsbury who seemed to have come-out on top as they took charge for the next 15 minutes in which they built a 10-0 lead with tries from Tom Delaney and Caelum Jordan, the first of which was converted by Jacob Hookem.
So the sides went in for the break with Dewsbury enjoying that advantage but by the 65th minute it had substantially changed with the Rams extending their lead to 38-0.
They took only seven minutes to add to that lead as Dan Coates went in for Hookem to convert and then Town just seemed to fold.
Brad Graham (54), Jack McShane (57), Bailey O’Connor (61) and George Senior (65) all finished well and Hookem completed the game with five conversions.
It was a sorry state of affairs but at least Town did finish the game with a flourish, started by Jake Dickinson who took a basketball pass to make the line and Jake Carter added the conversion.
It became three in six minutes as Zarrin Galea and Dickinson broke to set up Mason Lewthwaite (74) and then Callum Farrer (76) fed-off good work from Bear Williams for the third try.
Then in the last minute Town scored again as Alex Donaghy collected a kick from Dominic Wear to cross but Carter’s conversion attempt on the hooter failed.
Town’s man of the match was awarded to Callum Phillips who ran blood to water in vain in front of a crowd of 706.
Hear Jonty Gorley’s take on the game below:
