Head coach James Ford was thrilled with his Featherstone Rovers team’s response as they soundly returned to winning ways, defeating Doncaster 46-4 at the Eco-Power Stadium.
Following consecutive home losses to Wakefield Trinity and Bradford Bulls, which raised questions about Rovers’ ability to compete in the Betfred Championship this season, Ford needed the team to bounce back.
However, the players appeared driven to make amends from the outset and triumphed over Ben Reynolds’ early sin-binning due to his dual registration to completely outclass their opponents.
Crucially, Fev produced their most complete performance of the season and looked to be getting back on track. They were strong in both halves both offensively and defensively.
Rovers CEO Ford stated, “I thought it was a really positive response, a massive step in the right direction.”
“I think we’ve served up games with a lot of promising signs this season. We’ve stumbled a little bit in one or two of our games, including last week.
“Over the course of the 80 minutes, I felt like we performed. There was some pressure around us to do so.
“We defeated Donny, a formidable team with some outstanding players who had a genuine point to prove against us. I’m happy to accept the points, therefore.
Ford and Featherstone will now focus on another crucial match this Sunday against a Widnes Vikings team that has had a strong start to the season.
Rovers are back at home, where they will be looking to avoid losing for a third straight game. However, their opponents are coming off a 40-14 victory over the Halifax Panthers, which improved their record to four wins from four Championship games.
With several first team players still expected to be out, Featherstone was strengthened for their trip to Doncaster by the addition of players on dual registration from Hull KR, most notably half-back Ben Reynolds, who began the season with Fev. They will be hoping for similar support this week.
They did have a number of players back from suspension and injuries, including Jack Bussey, who came back after missing a month.
“It was very tiring and it showed at times,” he said after returning.
“It was pretty warm, and no matter how much you train, you can never fully achieve match fitness.
It was a hard game, and I don’t think the final score fully captured how difficult certain parts of it were.
I’ll be able to clear a few things off my plate, and we proved to be a formidable team. We overcame last week and will now continue for the remainder of the year.
“We really put them to the sword in the second half, and it’s pretty good going to only give up one try against a team like Doncaster.”
“In the league, we’ve won two and lost two, but there are still a lot of games left, so we just need to keep winning.”
