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Head coach Sean Long believes Featherstone Rovers players have already set the benchmark for what he wants from them right from their opening game of the new Betfred Championship season.

Rovers made a flying start to the new campaign with a 50-0 drubbing of an ambitious Keighley Cougars side in what was expected to be a tricky test first up.

Fev brought their impressive pre-season performances into the real thing and the nine-try romp left Long delighted with the performance level in his first competitive game in charge of the Rovers side.

He said: “I’m really pleased. All the standards and trademarks that we set pre-season were out there.

Chris Hankinson kicked seven goals on his competitive debut for Featherstone Rovers at Keighley Cougars. Picture: Rob Hare

"That was the benchmark for us.

"To keep them to zero was the main thing in the second half.

"We played some good rugby, sometimes it wasn’t pretty, it was just brute force, but we got the win. You’ve just got to get the win in round one and move on.

"I’ve got very high standards, a lot of it is effort based stuff. We go into details, but the actual glue that holds us together is our DNA and we’ve tapped into that as a town of what we’ve come from and our heritage is from.

"Ultimately it comes from hard work, being tough, grafters, never say die and that’s what our standards have been built on this year.”

Keighley 0-50 Featherstone: Rovers romp to impressive win at Cougars

Long was pleased with all his players, but particularly impressed with the competitive debut of a couple of his recent recruits in half-back Riley Dean and the strong running Mckenzie Yei.

"Riley plays at a really good tempo and he’s really composed, he’s a run threat and he can bang in D as well.

"He’s a really level headed player and he got us around the park. We’ve talked about composure a lot pre-game because in our friendlies we haven’t been composed in good ball and that’s let us down.

"We really focused on composure, accuracy and clarity in our play and I thought he was the main one who came up with that.

“McKenzie Yei coming off the bench suits us and playing off the back of him.

"If I was playing alongside him I’d definitely be sniffing round him because he’s got a great offload and gets you a quick play-the-ball most games.”

Featherstone Rovers set benchmark for season ahead in impressive opener at Keighley