Liam Finn ‘delighted’ as Dewsbury Rams remain unbeaten after second half heroics against title rivals Doncaster RLFC

Four tries between the 53rd and 70th minutes pulled the Rams away from their nearest League 1 title challenges - who were both unbeaten before the encounter.

After the win, Finn said:

“Happy to win as we knew it was a key game in our season. Whenever two teams are meeting unbeaten, it ups the anti a little bit and puts that pressure on and we are obviously delighted to come out on the right side of it.

“Doncaster have now played three really tough games, including us, and it shows that they are battle-hardened and they were ready for today and we needed to be somewhere near our best to get it done.”

Calum Turner helped the Rams to a 6-4 lead at the break, but the tryscorer was then sin-binned at the start of the second half for an infringement on Joshua Veacock.

But Finn’s men did not let the numerical disadvantage affect them.

“The sin-binning was a crucial call at the time but we dug in and saw that period out by scoring six points which was massive,” the head coach said. “But Doncaster are really good and it could have gone either way. They had their moments in the game.

“They made two breaks where they put the ball down and there was a forward pass, that’s a 12-point swing. In a game as tight as that, that’s a massive swing.

“For us just to mentally not lose the plot in that period and stay in the fight was a massive plus for us.

“We won that period 6-0 and for Sykesy to kick the goal from the touchline against the wind to make it a six-point cushion was a massive play from Sykesy who has been outstanding all year.

“It was a key period and it was a challenging one. It was almost like a switch for the lads where they thought, “yeah we need to dig in here and get out of the other side.” They more than did that.”

On Doncaster and League 1’s showpiece event of the season so far, Finn said:

“They are the best team we have played so far. We enjoy these kinds of games and if you're a semi or professional sportsperson, you want to play in those.

“We want to be playing in big games like this and the mantra has got to be, “take it to the last ten minutes.” Take it to the back end of the game and you find out who is really good.”