York Knights demolish Dewsbury 40-0 as Applegarth era begins

Just 11 days into his tenure, the Knights boss was left beaming as doubles from Ata Hingano and Joe Brown led an eight-try rout of the Betfred Championship’s last-placed side in the West Yorkshire sunshine.

With errors aplenty inside the opening quarter of an hour, Brad Ward opened the floodgates, with Jimmy Keinhorst, Jordan Thompson and Ukuma Ta’ai also finding the whitewash as the Knights equalled their biggest Championship points haul of the season and finished a match without conceding for the first time in 2024.

Worryingly for the Rams, with the gulf between the sides evident, and already six points adrift at the bottom of the Championship table, they have now gone two and a half matches without scoring, and never looked like pulling any points back on their home turf this afternoon.

Victory sees York move up to ninth, as one of five teams on eight points, ahead of a tough test at 2023 League Leaders’ Shield winners Featherstone Rovers next Sunday (3pm).

Applegarth made four changes, most notably welcoming full-back Will Dagger back from concussion, and captain Liam Harris making his long-awaited 100th appearance for the club after recovering from a shoulder injury that has kept him sidelined for over a month.

Nikau Williams was given a first run-out alongside Keinhorst in the centres, whilst ex-NRL star Sam Cook came off the bench to make his debut, eventually turning out at hooker, loose forward and at half-back during the second half.

Sam Cook was handed his debut, playing in three positions during the second half. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

Both sides lacked cohesion in a scrappy opening in the West Yorkshire sunshine as they returned from their two-week break for the Wembley finals.

Dagger was unlucky to see Kieran Rush’s kick on the last, which seemed set to roll dead, cannon off the crossbar with just two minutes played, with the Knights routinely pinned back inside their 10-metre line on the kick return.

But it wasn’t long before errors began to creep in, with York coughing up the game’s first penalty for offside a minute later, before a handling error gifted Applegarth’s charges a pressure-relieving scrum.

York saw the best chance of the opening 10 minutes come their way after Dewsbury had been penalised for interference at the ruck, but Williams could not reel in Harris’ dreadful pass as he looked to advance inside the 10-metre line.

The Rams themselves threw a poor pass from the game’s resumption but Will Jubb was held up as he looked to score with a characteristic dart out of dummy half from close range.

But with Dewsbury’s errors continuing to mount up, the Knights made no mistake from their next opportunity after winning a penalty for obstruction on the quarter-hour.

Keinhorst was brought down narrowly short before Ward collected Jubb’s bullet pass, finding an acrobatic finish into the left corner to open the scoring.

Brad Ward opened the scoring with an acrobatic effort. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

Dagger’s touchline conversion attempt flew well wide, but he made no mistake from his next effort four minutes later.

Rush’s cut-out pass was intercepted by Hingano, with defenders like statues as the Tongan half-back raced from the 30-metre line to score just to the left of the posts.

Dewsbury wasted a fantastic opportunity to hit back almost instantaneously, but instead soon found themselves further behind as Brown continued his prolific form with a stunner.

The winger collected Dagger’s looping cut-out pass before cutting back inside and twisting his way out of a couple of would-be tackles into the right corner for his fifth try in his last six matches.

Harris took over kicking duties but missed his only attempt from the tee.

14 points behind, Rush’s 40/20 injected a hint of life back into the Rams, but they could not capitalise on that, nor from the field position gained from a penalty for a high shot minutes later.

Instead, the Knights nudged themselves further ahead six minutes before the break, with Harris pouncing on a loose ball before feeding Brown, who ran 90 metres to cross the whitewash just to the right of the posts.

Dagger was again off target from the tee, but his team still held a comfortable 18-0 advantage at the break.

Any hopes of a second-half comeback from Dewsbury were dashed less than a minute after the restart, with referee Kevin Moore ruling that Keinhorst had managed to get fingertips to the bouncing ball after the Rams’ defence had been at sixes and sevens from Hingano’s chip to the left corner.

But though the Knights again gave up field position from a penalty five minutes later, their defence never looked like being breached.

Debutant Cook was introduced 15 minutes into the half, initially at hooker in place of Josh Daley, and did not have to wait long for his side to further eke out their advantage.

Hingano, who had been causing havoc amongst Dewsbury’s defence, backed himself from first receiver, powering through the tackle of two defenders to stretch out an arm across the line, Dagger again adding the extras.

Brown then thought that he had completed his hat-trick on the hour, only for his acrobatic effort to be disallowed for obstruction.

Joe Brown scored twice and had another disallowed as he continued his prolific form. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

The Knights suffered the only real test of their try-line defence in the minutes that followed after Dewsbury had been awarded consecutive penalties, and then a six-again inside the 10-metre line, but the hosts’ attack fell flat, with Ollie Greensmith knocking on from a sloppy pass in a move that typified their afternoon.

Rush was the next to try his luck after Keinhorst had been penalised for a high shot, but he was brought down narrowly short as he looked to dive for the line.

Applegarth’s side though responded with a final flourish, scoring twice inside five minutes.

First, Thompson, fresh from his re-introduction from the bench, picked the ball up just outside the 10-metre line and blasted his way across the whitewash from close range, before Ta’ai strolled through a gaping hole in Dewsbury’s try-line defence to touch down beneath the posts.

Dagger converted both with ease, seeing the Knights equal their largest Championship points total of the season.

DEWSBURY RAMS: O’Connor, Carr, Graham, Greensmith, Restall, Turner, Rush, Beckett, Davies, Dixon, Billington, Garside, Collinson.

INTERCHANGES: Butterworth, Bibby, Hird, Morris.

YORK KNIGHTS: Dagger, Brown, Williams, Keinhorst, Ward, Hingano, Harris, Ta’ai, Jubb, Fitzsimmons, Field, Bailey, Thompson.

INTERCHANGES: Teanby, Santi, Daley, Cook

TRIES: Ward (15), Hingano (19, 55), Brown (25, 34), Keinhorst (41), Thompson (75), Ta’ai (79)

GOALS: Dagger 4/7 Harris 0/1

POINTS SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-8, 0-10, 0-14, 0-18, 0-22, 0-26, 0-28, 0-32, 0-34, 0-38, 0-40

HALF TIME: 0-18

YORK’S STAR MAN: Ata Hingano. A brace of tries, a couple of assists, and an outstanding performance from the Tongan playmaker, with Dewsbury unable to contain him at times.

REFEREE: Kevin Moore