Widnes Vikings v Featherstone Rovers Match report by Daniel Crossfield (a dedicated flatcapper watching from home)

Widnes Vikings  v Featherstone Rovers Betfred Championship Round 13 (Sunday 11^th July 2021)

This was Featherstone Rovers’ Wembley warmup as they travelled to Merseyside to play Widnes the team they beat to get to Wembley.

This game was on OurLeague.

Could Featherstone head to Wembley still unbeaten, or would Widnes come close to stopping them again?

It was played at the Halton Stadium in Widnes.

After 3 minutes, Chisholm broke and offloaded to a team mate and McConnell was held up on the line, Chisholm then did a last tackle kick which came to nothing.

Four minutes later, Hardcastle got near the line but was held up, then a couple of minutes later, Brown stepped and nearly got over.

1^st Featherstone try

After a quarter of a hour, Rovers got their 1^st try as Davies ran, passed to Harrison who in turn passed to Brown who scored easily under the sticks for his 9^th try of the season, successful conversion by Chisholm.

10 minutes later, Widnes nearly scored twice once near the line, then they went wide over the right hand side and it looked like they were in, but Gale tackled Hatton in time.

Rovers penalty

After half an hour,  Harrison got tackled round the head and the ref gave a penalty to Rovers who  chose to take the 2 points on offer and Chisholm successfully converted it.

2^nd Rovers try

3 minutes later, try number 2 for Rovers as Cooper offloaded to Jones who darted through a gap from dummy half to score, successful conversion by Chisholm.

Halftime score:  Widnes Vikings 0-14 Featherstone Rovers

A very close 1^st half, which Featherstone just edged with a couple of tries, would there be a Widnes comeback in the 2^nd half?

After 43 minutes, Davies was held up near the line

1^st Widnes try

With 51 minutes gone, Widnes scored their 1^st try as their kick was dangerous and Dagger did well to collect and run away, but then he tackled the Widnes fullback so a penalty was awarded to Widnes and they made an extra 10m for dissent, from the penalty Smith passed to Baker who stepped and scored to the left of the sticks, successful conversion by Tyrer.

2^nd Widnes try

Four minutes later, Widnes scored a 2^nd try after a nice passing move through hands ended wide to Cross  unopposed went over in the corner,  unsuccessful conversion by Tyrer but it was game on.

Just before the hour mark, Chisholm stepped and broke and got held up and the effort came to nothing.

3^rd Featherstone try

With 15 minutes remaining, following a repeat set of 6, Moors did a superb run , then the ball went to Harrison who passed to Brown who spun and scored under the sticks, successful conversion by Chisholm.

4^th Rovers try

After 73 minutes, Brown scored his hat-trick try as the ball was worked between hands and switching the point of attack, Brown stepped and scored to the left of the sticks, successful conversion by Chisholm.

5^th Fev try

With a minute left, the best try of the afternoon was the last one as Moors and Hardcastle both ran well, and Gale scored out wide, successful conversion by Chisholm.

Fulltime score: Widnes Vikings 10-32 Featherstone Rovers

Featherstone made the margin of victory bigger than it perhaps looked as Widnes gave them a fright at the start of the 2^nd half, but Rovers remain unbeaten in the Championship.

It’s 12 wins out of 12 for Featherstone who are still 2^nd in the Championship, but no-one knows how or why as they’ve played more games than Toulouse and scored more points.

Next for Featherstone is their date with Wembley Stadium as they contest the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup final against York City Knights on Saturday July 17^th with a 12pm kickoff, even if there’s only a few thousand Fev fans there, they will make a noise, can Featherstone come home with a trophy?