Mark Moxon pleased as Batley Bulldogs get to grips with new rules in ‘scrappy’ 12-12 draw with rivals Dewsbury Rams

The traditional festive pre-season friendly was largely dominated by penalties awarded for illegal play-the-ball offences by the Rams after new law amendments were announced for the 2024 season with the RFL looking to clean up the ruck area and players being sanctioned if the ball carriers do not make a genuine attempt to play the ball with their feet.

Moxon said: “The penalty count was very high. I think the new rules were clear for everyone to see. To be fair, it was clear that we have done more work on it than Dewsbury have. We certainly didn’t concede as many play-the-ball penalties but we did concede a fair few of the markers not being square.

“We know the rules, we have spoken about them and have reviewed them a little bit. It shows that they are going to enforce them pretty strongly. We have had some clips from the RFL and they explained what they wanted. We have had James Vella in as well who has refereed a session.

“Doing those things maybe made us a little more aware of the rules, certainly the play-the-ball, than Dewsbury. It made the game scrappy. It was a bit of a leveller in terms of the contest.”

On the team’s performance over the full 80 minutes at the FLAIR Stadium, Moxon said:

“It was a good run out for us. I thought 12-12 was probably a fair result. Opportunities were limited. It was good to get some minutes under some lads’ belts. Some senior players got some good minutes and the younger lads got some decent minutes out there as well.

“It was good for the middles to get some minutes, Paul Chit on trial from Shaw Cross, and Josh Rhodes who came from Huddersfield, Joe Gibbons and Dave Gibbons got good minutes, Dave got the full 80 at half with Josh Woods being injured. They all went well. I thought Joe Burton in particular was very good, he showed great feet and showed he has got some threat in attack. 40 minutes at centre and last half hout at full back.

“I was pleased they were able to get out there and everybody came back unscathed.

“There weren’t many opportunities out there. Two crash over tries from them which we are disappointed about. But we hung in there and got back into it in the end.”

And, thanks to Batley’s 32-22 success at the Fox’s Biscuit Stadium in the festive fixture last year, the Roy Powell Trophy, which the sides play for, named in tribute of the Dewsbury-born former Batley player who sadly passed away in 1998, will be staying with the Bulldogs in Moxon’s first game in charge since taking over from Craig Lingard at the end of the 2023 season.

He said: “We’ll take that. We’d have preferred to win the game, there is no question about that, especially with it being my first game in charge.

“But we move Into the New Year still unbeaten!”