Morrison pleased to make winning start

Dewsbury were made to fight all the way by newly promoted Swinton before Josh Guzdek’s late try — his third on an eventful competitive Rams debut — enabled them to return with two valuable points.

Morrison told the Rams website: “Opening games in a new division are like a Grand Final for promoted teams and naturally they want to show that they warrant being in this division.

“So it was always going to be tough, and to go there and get the two points is pleasing, but our sets completion rate was a long way from our best.

“We had a game plan all along, but teams like Swinton who have just come up have something to prove.

“We’ve done a review with the boys and I think we only played the ball 10 times or something like that in their half all game.

“It follows that if we’d carried the ball a lot better and went from set to set we could have won a lot more comfortably.

“To our lads’ credit, they fought hard, so I am happy with the points but we could have made it easier for ourselves.”

The Rams had eight players making their competitive debuts against the Lions, with four newcomers making up Dewsbury’s 26 points.

Along with Guzdek’s hat-trick, Ben Reynolds grabbed a try and landed three goals from five attempts in an impressive display by the on loan half-back.

There was also a try for Paul Sykes, who started on the bench having missed the final pre-season game against London the previous week.

Dewsbury now switch their attention to Sunday’s opening home game against Workington Town, who suffered a 42-12 defeat at home to Sheffield Eagles last Sunday.

Elsewhere on an eventful opening round of Championship matches, fellow promoted side Oldham lost 22-0 at home to London, Halifax thrashed Whitehaven 52-6, while Bradford Bulls overcame Featherstone 22-12.