25 April 2021

Featherstone maintained their 100% Betfred Championship record with a nine try dismantling of Whitehaven.  Rovers started well with Brett Ferres and Connor Jones crossing the line in the first ten minutes to give the hosts an early lead.  The Cumbrians fought back with Karl Dixon the try scorer followed by a goal from the boot of Lachlan Walmsley.  Rovers turned up the heat before the break, Jack Bussey crashing through the Whitehaven defence to score ahead of a conversion from Nu Brown to restore their lead to ten points.

Haven started the second half as Rovers had started the first, scoring within ninety seconds of the restart, James Worthington going over in the corner.  Goal kicker Walmsley failed to convers and was taken from the field shortly thereafter for a head injury assessment following a crunching tackle from Gareth Gale that echoed around the ground. Craig Kopczak’s crash ball try in the fifty-first minute regained an advantage for the Rovers, only for Whitehaven to reply through rugby league debutant Aaron Purewal. It was all Featherstone from that point forward, tries for Nu Brown, Junior Moors and Josh Hardcastle put Haven firmly to bed.  The visitors were denied a try when the referee ruled that Connor Holliday’s effort was ruled to have not been grounded properly.  A thundering try scoring run from Gareth Gale with a must see fend off, followed by a try from Craig Hall saw Rovers score five tries in the final twenty minutes.