25 July 2021

Featherstone Rovers made it a 13th consecutive league win this season with a hard fought game against Bradford Bulls. The Bulls took an early lead through Ben Evans followed quickly by two penalty goals which left the Rovers trailing by ten points within the opening quarter of an hour. Jacob Doyle struck back mid-way through the first half with a carbon copy of all his tries so far this season.  Craig Hall added the conversion to bring the Rovers within a score.  Keys kicked the ball dead from the restart allowing Featherstone field position from which they quickly capitalised.  Nu Brown standing in at Hooker scored from dummy half with a deft penetrative dive at the Bulls whitewash.  Hall again made it more worthwhile with the conversion to put Featherstone ahead. Bradford were quick to respond, a clever break letting Brandon Pickersgill through to score, Keys converted to make it 20-12 to Bradford at the break.

Rovers needed to start the second half strong and did.  James Harrison crashed over for his first of the afternoon on 44 minutes before repeating his effort five minutes later with a second score.  Hall converted both to restore Rovers’ lead. It was Deja vu twice over for Bradford as Nu Brown repeated his quick dummy half score from the first half, finding his way over the Bradford line from close range. Hall added the extras and looked to have put the game beyond doubt six minutes later as Rovers were awarded a penalty and opted to go for the sticks. With the score 20-30, Bradford came back into the game with two further quick tries through Rhys Evans and George Flanagan to bring them within two points. When Gareth Gale was sent to the sin bin for a tackle on Keyes defeat for Rovers looked on the cards.  Howveer, every good story needs a hero and a villain, booed by the fans of his former club for much of the game, Dane Chisholm collected a loose ball 40m out to run in almost unopposed, a villain to break Bradford hearts and a hero to the Featherstone faithful on the opposite terraces.