Sean Long left frustrated as Featherstone Rovers suffer only their second league defeat of the season at Halifax Panthers

In a thrilling spectacle, which twisted and turned throughout, tries from Gadwin Springer, Joey Leilua, Craig Kopczak and Luke Briscoe weren’t enough to prevent Fev losing for the first time on their travels in 2023.

“Frustrating,” Long told Viaplay after the game. “I thought the effort was there in the first half. I thought we front-loaded our D, one, two, three but then we lacked a little bit of smarts on four and five defensively.

“There were a few strange calls out there and it frustrated our lads a little bit and it rolled into our attack. Compared to what we normally do, we normally stay calm in those situations. But with four minutes left on the clock there’s still time to win it.”

Praising a Halifax side who yet might meet Rovers at some stage in the play-offs, Long said:

“I thought Halifax stuck to their game plan and they finished their sets better than us and played the game better.

“Halifax were really good today, their spine was good and they frustrated us. The players are all hurting in there. I have got 17 blokes who are hurting.

“We have just got to come back and learn from it. We lacked a bit of composure and our end of sets were a bit scratchy.”

He added: “I’m as gutted as they are. When you lose a game there are always learnings. Going into the next few games we have got to learn what happened here, don’t get frustrated by calls and don’t go away from the game plan.

“We might be playing Halifax again in the semi’s, so we have got to learn from this. It’s better to lose now than in a semi.”