Grix happy with effort despite defeat as match officials spark controversy

Halifax coach Simon Grix was encouraged by his side’s response to ‘adversity’ in Tuesday night’s Championship clash with Dewsbury, despite finishing on the wrong end of an 18-16 scoreline.
Paul Brearley goes for the line against DewsburyPaul Brearley goes for the line against Dewsbury
Paul Brearley goes for the line against Dewsbury

Fax were caned by young Castleford official Cameron Worsley before the break, with Ed Barber and Kevin Larroyer both sin-binned and Scott Grix sent off just before half time, along with Rams hooker Dominic Speakman, as the home side finished the half on the wrong end of a 10-2 penalty count.

Fax, who also lost half back Tom Gilmore early on with a hamstring injury, still only trailed 6-0 at half time before going 12-6 and 16-12 ahead after the break.

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Ultimately, an Andy Gabriel try, after an error from the otherwise impressive James Woodburn-Hall, turned the game the Rams’ way.

“There was a lot of disruption in the first half; Gilly went off, two yellows, a red, a 10-2 penalty count at half time,” said Grix, whose side played eight minutes with 11 men.

“Kev went because of the team warning, Ed was adjudged to have tripped Joe Martin with a trailing leg.

“Scott threw a punch after having knees dropped on him while he was defenceless on the floor.

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“One of those is a red card, I’m not sure that the other should be.

“I thought we handled all that adversity pretty well. To go in at 6-0, given the numbers we had and the amount of time we spent on our own line, I was pretty happy with that.

“The second half we looked much better when we spent some time at the other end of the field.

“We looked threatening, but we came up with too many soft dropped balls, which is something we can control and we need to be better at that.

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“Due to the work we did in the first half, we probably fatigued a bit near the end when it was there to be won.

“We could still have nicked it, but we came up with a couple of dumb plays, probably because of that tiredness.

“There was a play at the end where we went to the right edge and we probably forced the pass and Jodie (Broughton) snatched at it a little bit.

“If we’d spent a bit more time there, I think it would have happened for us, but it’s ifs and buts now.”