27 February 2022

Rovers travelled to the Shay for their first Cup outing of Brian McDermott’s tenure. Rovers started the game under considerable pressure from the Panthers, defending several successive attacking sets from the Halifax side on their own tryline. Once in possession and territory, Rovers made Halifax pay, a wide ball out to the left edge saw Gareth Gale score for his fourth try of the year, the touchline position however proved too much for Hall’s boot.  With a little over a quarter of an hour gone, Rovers extended their lead through Connor Jones who barraged over from 10m out.  With the half time hooter fast approaching, it looked like a long afternoon would be in store for Halifax as Rovers put on a move from the training paddock to put Luke Briscoe in on the right-hand edge.

The second half saw a reversal of fortunes as Halifax came out firing.  The Panthers scored twice in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, former capper Jouffret and Lachlan Walmsley the try scorers. Halifax hopes appeared to have been dampened moments later as a floating pass from Pickersgill found Briscoe in space to edge Rovers a little further ahead.  Hall added the conversion to keep the score comfortable. With a little over ten minutes to go, Lachlan Walmsley intercepted a Pickersgill pass to run the length of the field to score, the game came down to a single score.  Sensing the need to put the game to bed, Morgan Smith fell into the pocket to slot a drop goal through the uprights, the referee disagreed that the ball had gone through but no more than 60 seconds later, Smith again pulled the trigger on the drop goal to edge Rovers ahead of the single score that could bring Halifax level.  Sensing the game was over, Halifax heads dropped and with less than a minute left on the clock, Brandon Pickersgill found a path through the Fax defence to put the game to bed once and for all.