Rams chief wary of backlash from Calland’s luckless Halifax

The West Yorkshire rivals face each other in the Championship today with Halifax still seeking their elusive first win at the sixth attempt.

Matt Calland’s men lost a fifth successive game when they crashed 47-36 at Widnes on Thursday night so Dewsbury may fancy their chances of extending that run this afternoon.

But former Bradford Bulls second-row Jowitt said: “I don’t think you can ever write Halifax off – they have too many good players in their team.

“They’ve had a few injuries and something has just not been going right for their way but we’re only a few games in and we know what they can still do.

“They got a bonus point at Widnes and were unlucky not to get more so we’ll be wary.”

Dewsbury lost 36-20 in their Heavy Woollen derby with Batley but are looking to add to their two wins.

They may have to do so without the luckless Pat Walker, who returned from a broken arm in that match – having crushed a finger at work the week before – only to then suffer another potentially long-term injury.

“We think he’s broken his thumb,” said Jowitt.

“We’ll know more soon but it’s looking like that.

“He’s just come back from his broken arm and did well for us but now he’s taken this knock to his other hand.

“We had a front-rower sin-binned in the opening 10 minutes against Batley and that didn’t help us but we’re looking to get straight back into it on Monday.”

New joint-leaders Batley entertain Sheffield Eagles while Featherstone Rovers host front-runners Leigh Centurions as the top four sides are all involved against each other today.

York City Knights, who lost 50-12 against Hunslet on Good Friday, are in Toulouse still awaiting their first win and with coach Dave Woods bemoaning their itinerary.

They have recently enjoyed a three-week break but then found themselves flying to France on Saturday the day after that Hunslet loss.

They arrive back tomorrow, reducing their preparation time for Sunday’s game with Dewsbury, and Woods said: “I don’t know why they couldn’t have got Toulouse to travel to us especially as they’ll have had more than a week to prepare for this.

“It’s poor fixture planning.”

England Youth let slip a 12-point lead to go down 19-18 to France in the first of two Tests at Odsal, where French scrum-half Theo Fages landed a last-minute drop goal.

England gained a 24-18 win over Wales in the Under-16 international in Caerphilly after leading 18-0 after half-an-hour.