Halifax 28 v Dewsbury 8

Monday 7th June 2010

Story in brief:

Halifax tightened the gap on the Championship top two with a comfortable home victory over Dewsbury.

This was perhaps one of the more satisfying wins of the season for Matt Calland's side, who showed a marked improvement defensively in a performance which should give them added confidence ahead of Thursday night's televised clash with leaders Featherstone.

The game was in danger of becoming a war of attrition with both sides' attack being met by strong defence as the early stages turned into a battle for the territorial advantage.

It was Fax who eventually broke the deadlock through veteran Stanley Gene who opened the scoring after scrum-half Ben Black burst through the Dewsbury defence to put the Papua New Guinea veteran in for the score.
The first 40 minutes proved to be a largely even contest, and Dewsbury levelled the scores after a spell of pressure on the Halifax line, winger Bryn Powell crossing over in the far corner.

Both sides continued to make errors handling the ball as they looked for the score that would give them a clear advantage. It would be Dewsbury that would go into the break ahead, Ed Barber converting a penalty after Shad Royston had been sent to the sin bin for interference at the play the ball.

The 12 men of Fax re-took the lead early in the second half and it was their Aussie half-back pairing on hand again, Luke Branhigan's clever chip kick through collected by Ben Black who dived over to put Halifax 12-8 in front.

Smelling blood and possibly spurred on by being a man down, Halifax rallied and ramped up the pressure on the Rams' line. This quickly paid off, Stephen Bannister powering over in the right hand corner to increase Fax's advantage to 10 points.
Black then added a spectacular second to put Halifax well clear, the scrum half darting across almost the entire Dewsbury defensive line before squeezing through a gap on the left hand side to send the home support into raptures.

Not satisfied with keeping Dewsbury scoreless in the second period, Halifax continued to go on the attack, and they capped off a solid performance with a late try from Jon Goddard, the centre touching down after substitute Paul White patted back a high kick from Luke Branhigan which Goddard was able to collect and touch down to put the gloss on an 8th win in a row for Fax.

Nicholas McGhee

Halifax: Shad Royston, Lee Paterson, Jon Goddard, James Haley, Rob Worrincy, Luke Branhigan, Ben Black, Dave Larder, Bob Beswick(captain), Michael Ostick, Dylan Nash, Stephen Bannister, Stanley Gene.
Subs: Mark Gleeson, Said Tamghart, Frank Watene, Paul White.
Tries: Gene, Black (2), Bannister, Goddard
Goals: Paterson (4)
Sin Bin: Royston
Red Card:

Dewsbury: Stewart Sanderson, Bryn Powell, Alex Bretherton, Ayden Faal, Scott Turner, Ed Barber, Dominic Brambani (captain), James Lockwood, Luke Blake, James Walker, Rob Spicer, Andrew Bostock, Pat Walker.
Subs: Mike Emmett, Austin Buchanan, Keegan Hirst, Anthony England
Referee: Craig Halloran
Tries: Powell
Goals: Barber (2)
Sin Bin:
Red Card:

Attendance: 1,851