02 July 2023

Featherstone powered their way to a big win in Cumbria to continue their push to secure top spot in the Championship. Once again the forwards set the platform with a dominant display against a Whitehaven side that looked fatigued from having played in midweek. Rovers ran in 11 tries with eight different try scorers, but victory came at a cost in terms of injuries with both Junior Moors (thumb) and Chris Hankinson (knee) facing layoffs through injury.

The game was delayed for over an hour due to bad traffic conditions on the M6, but it did not take the visitors long to find their groove as first Connor Jones backed up Thomas Lacans to go over then Gadwin Springer charged through to establish an early lead that was never threatened. The hardworking Mathieu Cozza grabbed his first try off a deft Springer pass, before Caleb Aekins strolled over with a show-and-go. The half concluded with Arama Hau grabbing a try, and four Kheirallah conversions left Rovers 28-0 ahead.

The second half offered more of the same one-way traffic as Featherstone added a further six scores. Rovers kept the ball alive in wonderful fashion for Cozza to get his second try before Kheirallah collected his own kick-through to score himself. Then the right edge had their say. Joey Leilua put Luke Briscoe over, then a flicked pass from in-goal by Briscoe saw Leilua get a try. Rovers had passed fifty points when Kheirallah went straight over from a scrum. The fullback ended with a match haul of 24 points from his two tries and eight conversions. The last try of the match saw Aekins jink over for his second.

Among a number of standout performances it was great to see Elijah Taylor back in action after a long layoff. Rovers also gave a debut to loanee signing from Wigan Logan Astley.