22 February 2020

Featherstone Rovers booked their place in the Coral Challenge Cup Fifth Round with a 18-16 victory over Barrow Raiders at the LD Nutrition Stadium. In a game where Rovers were far from their best, tries from Craig Hall, Dean Parata and Gareth Gale were enough to overcome a sending off for captain James Lockwood and a resolute Barrow Raiders side. It was a slow start for James Webster’s men, who conceded in the opening three minutes when Luke Cresswell got himself over for the Raiders. However, five minutes later Hall was at hand to score his second try of the season, and the fullback converted his own try to give Rovers a narrow two-point lead. Then Parata bagged a try against his former Club when Jake Sweeting’s offload went loose but deflected and bounced over the try line, to which the Italian international pounced and grounded to score. However, Connor Terrill latched onto a short pass from Dan Toal and dived his way over for Barrow. Then things looked worse for Featherstone as captain James Lockwood was sent off for kicking out after a tackle from Shane Toal.

After a quiet start to the second period, Barrow were handed a team penalty, which granted an opportunity for Hall to go for the two-points and put the hosts marginally ahead. Rovers then found themselves with level men to Barrow when Perry Singleton was sent to the Sin Bin for interfering the play of the ball. Then Raiders found themselves down to 11 when Declan Sephton-Hulme was also shown a yellow card for a poor tackle on Luke Cooper. However, despite being a man down, Barrow got themselves ahead through Jordan Whalne, who was found with a short pass by Wartovo Puara with less than ten minutes to go. Just as it looked as if Rovers Challenge Cup campaign could be coming to an end, Gale was found by Carey on the right wing, and the winger finished on his first appearance of the season to give Rovers the victory.