Cooke pleased as refreshed Featherstone Rovers finish strongly to see off Vikings comeback

Rovers were boosted by the return of big off season signing King Vuniyayawa and went on to complete only their third victory of the season when they beat their hosts 38-16 in the Betfred Championship.

Paul Cooke’s men were ahead from the fifth minute and were 16-6 ahead at half-time before surviving a Vikings comeback to seal their success.

"I thought we were comfortable in the first 20 minutes,” said head coach Cooke.

"Then we went away from we did very well and that allowed Widnes to come back in.

"At 16-6 at the break we were in a game and we asked to reset and start again. By and large we didn’t do that, we came out at the start of the second half and were a bit sloppy, conceding a try, a couple of penalties and then a try again. All of a sudden you are at 16-each, the crowd’s involved and you are really into a game.

"But on the end of a 9-2 penalty count to score as many points as we did and concede 16 I think it’s been a good effort from the players.

"I’m pleased for the players, I’m pleased for the supporters, the board of directors and the staff that we’ve got a result.”

Rovers shot into an early lead with winger Connor Wynne racing in at the corner for the opening try.

Wynne was then the hero at the other end with a crucial tackle to prevent a Widnes try.

A superbly timed 40-20 kick gave Fev good field position from which they fashioned a second try on 14 minutes as their other winger, Darrell Olpherts supplied the finish. Ben Reynolds added the conversion to make it 10-0.

It soon got even better for Rovers when centre Bailey O’Connor followed up his own kick to score and with Reynolds goaling again it was 16-0 with the visitors almost scoring a point a minute at this stage.

They stayed on top, but were unable to finish off moves so well for a spell and Widnes grabbed a lifeline as Matt Flemming put their first points on the board with a try that was converted by Tom Gilmore.

Widnes made further inroads into the Fev lead early in the second half with James Duffy – on dual-registration from Warrington – diving over in the corner.

Further pressure led to Max Roberts charging over from Jack Owens’ pass and Gilmore’s conversion levelled the scores.

Featherstone quickly regained control, however, when Vuniyayawa burst over from close range to put them back in the lead and Reynolds added the goal.

Toby Boothroyd then backed up great play by Caleb Aekins for another try and it was 26-16 inside the last 10 minutes.

Widnes came close to hitting back straight away when they won possession from a short restart and Duffy raced for the line again, but Wynne pulled off another try saving tackle.

Rovers were soon back in attack with more points added by half-back Ryan Hampshire who supported a strong break by Vuniyayawa and Reynolds who improved the try.

They were not done as in the final minute O’Connor intercepted a Gilmore pass to race away for the final try, to which Reynolds added the extras.