14 August 2021

Featherstone recorded a routine win over York, with winger Craig Hall grabbing four tries, having moved to the flank to incorporate new signing Alex Walker, who himself scored two tries on his home debut. The victory was welcome, but came at a cost with an injury to James Harrison. The Knights had a very good first half, scoring two quickfire tries in the opening six minutes in identical fashion, engineered by their star player Brendan O’Hagan, with looping cut-out passes over the top to the unmarked Ben Jones-Bishop, the second from a splendid off-load from Sam Scott. Unfortunately Matty Marsh was unable to convert either from out on the touchline while Craig Hall was on target with a similar effort after Ben Blackmore scored in the corner off Kris Welham’s pass, and when James Harrison crashed over off skipper James Lockwood’s pass the simple addition gave Rovers an undeserved four point lead. When Dane Chisholm was sin-binned for a high tackle on O’Hagan the Knights took full advantage and Marsh restored their lead with a try under the posts. He didn’t take the conversion however, Corey Johnson adding the extras. Featherstone then picked up what looked like a knee ligament injury to James Harrison, and that took the gloss off a thrilling first half, which ended with Walker taking Chisholm’s aerial kick to give Rovers an 18-14 interval lead.

The second half was the Craig Hall Show. His four tries brought him to twenty for the season. His first was from a piece of Chisholm magic as he threaded a neat grubber for the winger to race on to. His hat-trick was from a 50 metre interception, and the other two resulting from neat passing moves out to the left. His six goals from eight included three touchline conversions. It was Walker who started the ball rolling in the 44th minute, however, joining the line from full-back and gliding through with Blackmore unmarked outside him.