Dewsbury show their title credentials

Dewsbury laid their title credentials bare with a 14-try victory over a Cornwall side that never recovered from shipping four tries inside the opening 20 minutes.

Perry Whiteley led the way for Liam Finn’s Rams with a quadruple while Sam Day and Davie Dixon also helped themselves to hat-tricks as the home side kept their 100 per cent start to 2023 very much intact.

For Cornwall, who have shown real signs of improvement in 2023, they will take a small crumb of comfort from their endeavours in never raising the white flag and despite the one-sided scoreline, they finished the game well.

But Dewsbury were ultimately superior in every department and started the rout in just the sixth minute when Coby Nichol came charging out the line leaving a gap for Whiteley to expose. Callum Turner then kicked the first of 11 successful conversions.

Whiteley thought he had scored a second in similar fashion shortly after but referee Matthew Lynn spotted a forward pass and Cornwall had been let off the hook, albeit only temporarily.

Jimmy Beckett burst down the middle to score next before he turned provider and juggled the ball to feed Dixon who strolled home.

Dewsbury were running at better than a point a minute during the early exchanges of the first half and Dixon put the game beyond the Choughs when he went through the middle to register.

Both teams were then involved in a spate of handbags when Dewsbury reacted to Whiteley being bundled into touch by a combination of Kaine Dimech and Decarlo Trerise. Sensibly, though, the official spoke to both captains and didn’t reach for his pocket.

Cornwall didn’t help themselves at times during a one-sided opening stanza and a fifth Dewsbury score came after the Choughs shipped consecutive six again’s and a penalty. The end result was a first try of the afternoon for Day.

Winger Simon Frewin then got in on the act with his maiden four-pointer in Dewsbury colours, outpacing the would-be Cornwall defence from a scrum in midfield. Day then finished off Dewsbury’s first half scoring before Cornwall opened their account.

In a rare foray towards the Dewsbury line, Adam Rusling’s long ball was gathered by Harry Aaronson who did the rest. Rusling’s difficult touchline conversion sailed just wide.

After the interval, Cornwall did start brightly and forced two repeat sets on Dewsbury’s line but the Rams soon found their straps again.

Interchange Elliott Morris somehow managed to squeeze in under the sticks and with Turner knocking over the extra two points, Dewsbury were over the 50-point mark.

Two tries in three minutes from Whiteley and Day respectively saw the home side threaten to really cut loose but they crossed the line just once more before the final exchanges.

Whiteley bagged his treble and then Cornwall enjoyed their best spell of the game in both attack and defence.

Harry Boots was the man to score Cornwall’s only try of the second period when he powered onto a reverse pass to dot down and Rusling converted.

Aaronson almost bagged a second when he just failed to gather Rusling’s chip over but Dewsbury, rather fittingly had the final say.

Whiteley scored his fourth try of the afternoon and the victory was rounded off by another searing Dixon run inside the final minute.