Doncaster 10 Featherstone Rovers 56 The display last week against Widnes had done a lot to remove the bitterness of the Toulouse game and the traveling fans would be looking for a repeat of the same spirit in today's game. Doncaster, with only one win all season, were now on negative points, but they had run Whitehaven and Leigh close recently so would be looking for more than respectability this week and couldn't be taken lightly. In the end the Featherstone fans went home happy having seen their team score ten good tries whilst the Dons, although well beaten in the first half, must have pleased their following with a gutsy second half display where, whilst they still lost on the scoreboard, they must have come close to gaining a moral victory. The game started disastrously for Doncaster when they failed to hold the kick off, and without handling the ball were four points behind. A scrum and one play-the-ball was enough for Rovers to spread the ball left for Ian Hardman to power over from close range. Stuart missed the kick but the game had started well for Featherstone.
In fact nearly twenty minutes were to pass before Rovers really lifted away with five more tries to built an unassailable half time lead. The first of these came after an excellent break through the middle by Stuart Dickens where he was able to offload to James Houston who continued the drive before putting Kyle Briggs in to score under the sticks, The next came when an Andy Kain kick through plus a good chase forced a goal line drop out and a second set. Rovers needed no more encouragement and when it looked as if the move had died on the right with Dwayne Barker he turned back inside to Stuart Dickens who continued the same way to find Ian Hardman coming through to score.
Ian was to get the fourth of his five tries after a penalty for a flop gave Rovers a second set inside the opposition forty. A short ball from Andy Kain found the full back joining the line late and breaking through for yet another try under the sticks. The final score of the half came when a juggled Doncaster pass on the Rovers forty was intercepted by Kyle Briggs. Kyle had been receiving treatment immediately before this so it was possibly no surprise that the last ten yards looked heavy going, but it was enough to prevent the chasers catching him and enough to give Featherstone a thirty point lead at half time.
Ian then added the last of his tries. This time it was Wayne Barker's turn to step and break through the defensive line. He made yards down the field and then as the Doncaster full back approached he released the ball for Ian to score. Stuart was not being tested at the moment with another easy kick. There followed Doncaster's best period of the game. Even though they were outscored two tries to one in the last half hour, they showed enough to look more like a team as they were driven round the field by ex Rovers half back Matty Handforth. Rovers scored next though. After good ground had been made down the field by Haughey, Dickens and Tonks, Doncaster tried to slow the play down too much for Mr Laughton and were penalised. From the resulting penalty the ball was spread to the left through Tommy Haughey and Tommy Saxton until finally Waine Pryce received a rare pass on his wing and used it to good effect as he crossed and cut in to score. No conversion by Arron Dobek but Rovers had the fifty up. Doncaster reached double figures when a flat pass to the left followed by a good ball out of the tackle, released Mark Stubbley to score a try which Mark McKinley converted.
All in all a good game with some expansive rugby from both teams. With the wealth of talent that has left Doncaster this year they were always going to struggle and Rovers took good advantage of this with some first class team tries. They now need to carry this level of play through to the difficult fixture next week against top of the table Barrow. Doncaster, on the other hand, will already be looking towards next season in Championship 1 and they showed enough to give their supporters hope of a much better season than this year.
Half Time 4 - 34 Referee Mr R Laughton Scoring sequence 0-4, 4-4, 4-10, 4-16, 4-22, 4-28, 4-34, 4-40, 4-46, 4-50, 10-50, 10-56 Crowd: 641 © 2009 Stuart Lonsdale |
The expectations of the Rovers fans that the flood gates would now open were to be premature though, for it was to be the Dons who were the next to score. A scrum for a knock on as Rovers ran the ball off their line followed by two penalties for offside gave Doncaster the ground for Wayne Opi to barge over from acting half. Once again the kick was missed but the scores were level. All three decisions that lead to the try were correct but for the rest of the first half the Rovers fans were disappointed that this standard of refereeing wasn't consistently applied by Mr Laughton. 
Only two minutes were to pass before Ian got his hat-trick. From the base of a scrum on the Dons' twenty the ball came right and a well timed dummy run against the grain by Andy Kain opened the defence enough for Ian. When tackled he still had five yards to go but had the strength to pull the tacklers with him and reach out for the line. 
It only took two minutes of the second half for Rovers to extend their lead. A good set had taken the Rovers into the Dons' thirty when on the last tackle Andy Kain dummied the kick and tried to duck under the defence. He was eventually stopped but was able to release the ball to Jack Lee who once again made the conversion easy for Stuart. 
As in the first half it was left for Rovers to close the scoring. The ball again came to the left and it looked as if Tommy Haughey had made the wrong decision as he ignored the players outside him and cut back, but this reckoned without Tommy's power as he carried the defenders over the line with him to score a try which Stuart converted. 
