Championship round-up: Featherstone Rovers make play-offs despite defeat at York Knights after Dewsbury Rams shock Sheffield Eagles as Wakefield Trinity rack up over 1,000 points in big win over Doncaster

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Featherstone Rovers have made the Betfred Championship play-offs despite losing at top six rivals York Knights.

Fev suffered a 14-6 defeat at a nervy LNER Community Stadium in a result which cemented the Knights’ place in the end of season extravaganza.

But Rovers scraped in too thanks to Dewsbury Rams’ surprising defeat of Sheffield Eagles and will now meet third placed Bradford Bulls at Odsal next weekend.

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It was 4th vs 5th before kick off with the winner guaranteed a place in the play-offs and Josh Hardcastle, within the opening minutes, spun out of a tackle to touch down to leapfrog the visitors.

Featherstone Rovers have made the play-offs. Photo by Kevin Creighton.Featherstone Rovers have made the play-offs. Photo by Kevin Creighton.
Featherstone Rovers have made the play-offs. Photo by Kevin Creighton.

But it was only a temporary switch as York, who came into the game with six wins out of their previous seven, levelled through the excellent Liam Harris.

Harris’ try came moments after Gareth Gale thought he had extended Fev’s lead but it was disallowed for offside.

So from potentially being 12-0 in front, they found themselves pegged back at 6-6 in the blink of an eye.

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Joe Brown then grabbed his 19th try of the season as the Knights turned the game on its head.

Josh Hardcastle goes over for Fev at York Knights. Photo by Kevin Creighton.Josh Hardcastle goes over for Fev at York Knights. Photo by Kevin Creighton.
Josh Hardcastle goes over for Fev at York Knights. Photo by Kevin Creighton.

Gale had another try ruled out before Harris settled in nerves in the home ranks with his second of the afternoon.

But although Widnes Vikings, who started the day outside of the play-offs, triumphed at Barrow Raiders to seal fifth place, Fev finished in sixth above Sheffield after they suffered a surprising defeat at Dewsbury.

“I didn’t see Dewsbury beating Sheffield but we’ll take it,” admitted Fev’s head coach James Ford to BBC Radio Leeds after the game.

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“I thought it was a good spectacle and two pretty good teams. We defended well. The difference was they had a couple of individuals who have come up with a couple of plays and we didn’t nail our chances.

“We had a couple of chances before half time where I thought we could have done better. In the second half, for the first 20 minutes, we dominated York.

“Sometimes when you can’t nail your chances you have got to credit the opposition. They’re a good team and I don’t think there’s much between us.”

He added: “We haven’t made the play-offs as we would have wanted to. You want to make it on your own accord.

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“We got to Odsal and we dust ourselves off and go after another win.”

The Rams arguably saved their best performance of 2024 for the very last day with a 28-8 win thanks to tries from Keenan Tomlinson, Reis Butterworth and Lewis Carr, plus a double from Ollie Greensmith.

It was only the rock-bottom side’s second win of the season - and first since their Round 2 success against Heavy Woollen rivals Batley Bulldogs.

Wakefield Trinity made it over 1,000 points scored for the league campaign after running riot at home to Doncaster.

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Max Jowitt scored four of Trin’s 13 tries as they scorched to a 72-6 win.

Jowitt, in total, scored 36 points having converted 10 of the tries.

There were also tries for Derrell Olpherts, Mason Lino, Caleb Uele, Isaiah Vagana and Renouf Atoni, while Iain Thornley and Jermaine McGillvary both got doubles.

The runaway league winners have finished on 50 points while scoring a mammoth 1,010 points.

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They will play the lowest-ranked side left remaining in the play-offs at the DIY Kitchens Stadium on the weekend of October 12/13, which could be Featherstone Rovers.

Halifax Panthers blew a commanding 16-0 lead at Whitehaven to lose 23-20.

James Woodburn-Hall scored a hat-trick while Charlie Graham was also on the trysheet but it wasn’t enough as the relegated Cumbrians recovered to finish the season with a thrilling win.

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