Featherstone Rovers back to winning ways but made to work hard by Sheffield Eagles

The victory kept Paul Cooke’s men in fifth place ahead of their difficult final two matches against Oldham and Bradford Bulls when they will need one further win to seal a play-off place.

Rovers will likely have to play better than they did in South Yorkshire, but after the poor performance in the previous match against Widnes they were relieved to get the two points and pleased to show improved defence.

After shipping 30 points against Widnes and Doncaster a tightening of the belts was needed and they only conceded two tries to the Eagles, with one of them only coming late on with the match already done and dusted.

It took Fev 13 minutes to open the scoring after they had to survive some early hosts pressure. Calum Turner, once again at half-back, skipped through the Sheffield defence to plant the ball down between the sticks.

Ben Reynolds kicked the first of five conversions and was on target again three minutes later, improving a try finished off by winger Derrell Olpherts after smart link-up play between James Glover and Connor Jones.

The home team dug in, however, and put their first points on the board when Billy Walkley raced over in the corner after collecting Danny Craven’s kick through on the last tackle.

Sheffield had another “try” ruled out for a forward pass, but were happy with their efforts as they went in at half-time only eight points down.

Featherstone were to stretch that lead after the break as Turner put a kick through and Clay Webb collected before going over for a try.

Glover was then held up as further pressure was forced, but Rovers had another score to celebrate just past the hour mark when King Vuniyayawa burst over from close range.

They went further ahead with six minutes to go as Webb went over for his second try of the afternoon, supporting a line-break down the left made by full-back Caleb Aekins.

It was not a good finish for Rovers, however, as they had key player Reynolds sent-off for dissent and two minutes from time their hosts took advantage of their extra man to score their second try through Ryan Millar.