14 May 2023

Featherstone Rovers’ perfect start to the season continued with an impressive 30-0 demolition of mid-table Widnes, who were blown away by a very polished first half show. Pride of place went to Gareth Gale, whose strong running and eye for the tryline saw him score a first half hatrick. He was too much of a handful for the home defence all afternoon.

It was Gale who opened the scoring after 11 minutes as he muscled through from acting halfback and sprinted away to score from 60m out. Craig Hall, back in the side for the injured Leilua, kicked the first of his three goals from six attempts. Jack Bussey then latched onto Dean’s pass to double the lead, and when Gale leapt over in the corner in spectacular fashion the game was already beyond Widnes. A 90m sprint down the touchline completed Gale’s hatrick inside 35 minutes and also the first half scoring, with the visitors 26-0 ahead.

A more interrupted flow to the start of the second half was enlivened by Hall’s first try of the season as he crossed out wide, before Widnes enjoyed their best spell without really threatening to score. Rovers were a man short for 10 minutes after Bussey was sin-binned, and then introduced debutant Arama Hau, straight off the plane from the Gold Coast. He slotted in well, and was on hand to offload for Connor Jones to score after Jones himself had made a huge break downfield. It was the final score of a highly satisfactory performance.