Dewsbury Rams defeated Swinton Lions 34 points to 16 as both sides battled to cement a place in the Championship 8’s play offs.
The home side at the Tetley’s stadium in West Yorkshire had a storming start running in two tries in the opening six minutes.
Lucas Walshaw brushed tacklers aside to crash over on the left and then Dale Morton scored in the right corner.
Both sides had a few dust-ups during the afternoon and the officials had their work cut out to keep the game on track.
Matt Groat added the third Rams try on eleven minutes when he crashed over from close range, but The Lions hit back on 20 minutes.
The Rams were camped on the Lions line when Liam Marshall intercepted a pass five metres from his own line and raced the full length of the fieldto score under the posts. Chris Atkin converted.
Stuart Littler and Jason Crookes were sent to the sin bin for fighting after it seemed the Rams player had lead with the elbow in the attack.
While they were both off the field Rams added another try when Andy Kain scored by the posts and Sykes converted again.
But again the Lions hit back when Rhodri Lloyd scored after good pressure on the line. And with just seconds to go to the break the Lions gave away a penalty five metres into the Rams half and Sykes elected to go for goal and landed it as the hooter sounded.
The Lions started brightly in the second half with John Duffy having a long chat with his team.
They got a penalty in the very first minute when Joel Farrell appeared to punch Atkin in the tackle which the officials seemed to miss at first and then the penalty was awarded.
The Lions then had some good attacks on the Rams line but time and time again either the final pass failed to find the man or the Rams defence held them out.
You could tell it was not going to be the Lions day, but there was another great spell of play on 51 minutes when a good passing movement saw Marshall dive in at the left corner for his second try and Atkin convert from the touchline.
Then there was more pressure on the Rams line before against the run of play Tony Tonks crashed over by the posts with Sykes again converting to stretch the Rams lead.
Finally there was more Lions pressure before Sykes scored the final try in the right corner as the hooter sounded.
Despite the disappointing result, Lions thanked their travelling fans and looked ahead to next week’s vital match against Batley RLFC.
Main image © Pete Green/Swinton Lions
