25 May 2014

Rovers started the game on the back foot, before they came away and capitalised on their first opportunity, when Gareth Moore's crossfield kick was taken successfully by James Mendeika. They then came straight back downfield from the restart and Andy Kain chipped down the right, which allowed Mendeika to touch down. A series of penalties helped Featherstone to maintain their hammering of the visitor's line, but when the halfbacks combined with Will Sharp to put Greg Worthington in some determined covering forced him out to touch. This proved invaluable for the visitors, as Parker forced his way over immediately from a penalty to narrow the deficit. Whitehaven broke however, when the ball was taken wide following some fluent halfback play, which enabled Mendeika to complete his hat-trick. A cut out pass from Ian Hardman sent Sharp over in the corner, after brushing off Burns. Moore appeared to have dusted off his kicking boots too, as he added a third conversion to increase the lead. Whitehaven were not out of the contest yet however, and Parker struggled over once again, only for the try to be disallowed, although he was awarded a penalty. Undeterred by this, they switched play to the opposite flank, where ex-Rover Tom Carr's long cut-out pass enabled Burns to score in the corner. Once more Southernwood failed to add the extras, leaving the margin at fourteen points as the first half came to a close.

Early in the second half, play passed from James Lockwood to Worthington, who spun over. The visitors responded though, when Parker once more powered over the line, this time from acting half, setting the tone for what was expected to be a close half. Rovers planned differently however, hitting back with a quick fire triple. First Flanagan sent Smith over on the inside, after juggling the ball. Then Worthington spun through once more but this time offloaded to Sharp. Finally, following a kick out on the full, Lockwood's pop pass was met perfectly by the onrushing Worthington. The tries continued to flow for Featherstone. Kain provided a cut out pass to send Jamie Cording clean through. Featherstone ended the game on a high with Worthington providing a sublime offload for Will Sharp, whose produced a phenomenal finish.