Featherstone Rovers v Leigh Centurions Match report by Daniel Crossfield (a dedicated flatcapper watching at the stadium )

Featherstone Rovers v Leigh Centurions Betfred Championship Round 2 Monday 7th February 2022

This was the 1st home game of the season for Featherstone against fellow promotion rivals Leigh Centurions on Premier Sports for the 2nd Monday night game of the season. The atmosphere was pretty good, the pitch was poor though.

Could Featherstone make it 2 wins out of 2 and send a statement out, or could Leigh win 2 out of 2?
It was played at the Millennium Stadium

After three minutes, the 1st attack was worked well through hands to Hall, who passed inside but it came to nothing, then on the next attack, Featherstone were pulled up for a forward pass.
1st Featherstone try- Ball worked wide
After 12 minutes, Featherstone struck first as Leigh dropped the ball, Rovers worked it out wide, Leilua offloaded superbly to Briscoe on the left who dived over in the corner, successful conversion from Hall from the touchline.
Three minutes later, Chisholm was over but held up, but on next attack Rovers were after back to back tries but Moors knocked on near the line.

After 20 minutes, Leigh’s 1st attack but they were held up near the line, good defence by Rovers.

2nd Rovers try- Superb try
Two minutes later, a lovely Rovers try as Hall was away, he passed inside to Smith who raced away to score under the sticks, successful conversion by Hall.

2 sinbins for Leigh
After 25 minutes, Leigh were losing their heads as MacDonald was sinbinned for a tip tackle, then Reynolds threw a shoulder into the tackle and another sinbin, could Rovers take advantage of being 2 men up?

3rd Rovers try- Lovely kick by Chisholm set Hall up
2 minutes later, Rovers did take advantage of the 2 man advantage and Chisholm stepped and kicked the beautiful kick in the air out wide and Hall caught it in the air, and scored in the corner, unsuccessful conversion by Hall.

The last action of the first half was Leigh getting near the line, but spilled it.

Halftime score: Featherstone Rovers 16-0 Leigh Centurions
A first half that dragged on a bit, due to sinbins and injuries but it was a brilliant first half for Rovers with three well worked tries, could they keep that up in the 2nd half?
After 52 minutes, Featherstone though they’d scored again but one of the kickers was deemed to be offside from the kick.

4th Featherstone try
Just after the hour, it was 4th rovers try as Leigh dropped the ball and from a Rovers scrum, they got it wide and Davies scored in the corner, successful conversion from Hall.

1st Leigh try
With 11 minutes left, Leigh scored their 1st try as they spread the ball wide after an offload from Amone and Reynolds pass was finished by MacDonald, successful conversion from Reynolds.

5th Rovers try
In the last stages of the game, there was still time for one more Featherstone try as Pickersgill stepped through the mud to get over, successful conversion from Hall.

Fulltime score: Featherstone Rovers 28-6 Leigh Centurions
A fantastic performance and win for Rovers as they put a statement out for the rest of the Championship, in from of a superb crowd of 4,562 on a cold Monday night.

It means In the early stages of the season, Featherstone are in 2nd place on 4 points.

Highlights of the game are at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6GaPhzIhMM

Next up for Rover is a trip to Cumbria to face Workington who have conceded 90 points in their 1st 2 games on Sunday with a 2pm kickoff.