12 September 2021

Featherstone Rovers made it a perfect season on the road as they defeated London Broncos 28-48. Rovers started the game with relentless pace, Gareth Gale scoring in the first set of play, his 24th try of the season.  In the tenth minute, Connor Jones finished off a superb break from Rovers as they went end to end, Jones scoring directly under the uprights. Rovers looked unstoppable minutes later as Callum Field crashed through the Broncos defence to score the third Rovers score of the afternoon.  It looked like it would be a long and miserable afternoon for the Broncos as Connor Jones ran in his second of the game in the twenty-second minute. With the artificial surface a concern, coach Webster started ringing the changes as Tom Holmes took to the field in place of Nu Brown. Broncos’ fightback started just before the half hour mark as the ball went wide to Gideon Boafo, Hankinson failed to make it count from the boot.  Former Bronco, Alex Walker was the next to punish the  home side as he crossed in the corner. Rovers went into half time with a commanding 28-4 lead that looked set to provide a solid foundation for the second half.

It was the hosts that struck first after half time, a well placed kick over the heads of the Rovers defence was collected without contest by Boafo who fell on the spot for his second try of the game.  Minutes later, Tom Holmes collected the ball from a Chisholm pass in midfield and danced his way out to the right wing where he seemed to fool everyone and ran in the 30m space to score and sure up the Rovers lead.  Halton’s try marked an impressive landmark as it took Featherstone passed 1000 points for the season. Barely a minute later, with Rovers on the attack a loose kick bounced into the hands of Frankie Halton who cruised in the 2m needed to score, seemingly putting the game beyond doubt.  It was the broncos that were next to capitalise on a loose ball, Boafo again on the right-hand edge collected a spilled Rovers ball and turned on the afterburners to plant the ball down for his hat-trick.

Gareth Gale added his second score of the afternoon in the sixty-fifth minute with a thundering run, crashing through the Broncos fullback on his way to the line.  Hall failed to find the goal from a difficult angle. A strong second half from the Broncos was capped with a brilliant piece of play with drew in the Rovers defence to midfield leaving acres of space on their left.  A clever pass over the top of two players found Boafo on the wing in plenty of space to run in his fourth score of the afternoon. Connor Jones had the final say, a break from 40m out saw him run through to score a superb try under the posts, completing a hat-trick.