17 August 2014

Featherstone Rovers beat their rivals Championship Halifax and were in front after only three minutes when Kain and Hardman combined to squeeze Ben Crookes in at the corner. Then, Moore’s precision kick to the corner was palmed backwards into the hands of Crookes with the corner undefended. The touchline conversion was again missed and the game was still on, but Sean Pick’s touchdown three minutes later off Kain’s clever flat pass opened up a 14 point gap. Five minutes later the lead was stretched to 20 as Crookes registered his hat-trick, again off a Hardman pass from a quick dart from play-the-ball off Andy Ellis. Moore added the two from the touchline to give Rovers a buffer which never looked to be threatened. Fax tried their hardest to come back at Featherstone and showed some real enterprise with intelligent kicks, especially from Murrell, and expansive passing out wide, but the Rovers defence held firm, and when they did receive the ball Moore and Kain were happy to pin them back with probing kicks down the line, which gave their forwards the opportunity to run the clock down to half-time.

In the second period Featherstone were happy to make ground, complete their sets, and play the percentage game. That was until Andy Bostock broke from half-way and raced upfield with Sharp in support on his inside. Fieldhouse showed great anticipation in intercepting the pass and broke through the Rovers ranks past half-way. The break was continued by Tommy Saxton who ran diagonally across field to release Ben Johnston on his outside. After that, Rovers were happy to revert once more to safety first tactics which allowed them to run the clock down in a professional manner.