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Halifax 16 - Featherstone 26

Friday 11th June 2010

Halifax missed out on the opportunity to go second in the table, as their unbeaten run was ended by league leaders Featherstone.

Featherstone opened the scoring 5 minutes into the game, centre Liam Welham diving over in the corner after Halifax had given away a penalty inside their half.

Fax were quick to try and counter this early score as they piled the pressure on the Featherstone line with a pair of kicks each from Luke Branhigan and Ben Black forcing 4 consecutive drop-outs. The Rovers' defence stood tall however and Fax were unable to find a way over the try-line.

With so much riding on the game it came as no surprise that both sides were tentative to take risks, each playing mistake free Rugby with ball in hand whilst holding firm in defence.

Featherstone then enjoyed a period of dominance, as they spent much of the latter stages of the first half camped in the Halifax, but this yielded no result as Fax continued to show a vast improvement defensively.

The away side did eventually extend their advantage, second row Jamie Field going through a gap in the Halifax defence from dummy half to cross and increase their advantage to 10 points. The lead was then further extended when winger Jessie Joe Parker crossed after a quick break from the Rovers enabled them to spread the ball out wide for Parker to dive over.

Halifax quickly responded, Luke Branhigan powering over right on the stroke of half time after Fax had successfully executed a short kick off, making the score 14-6 at the interval.

Featherstone re-established a healthy advantage in the second half, substitute Ross Divorty crashing over from short range, and this lead was again stretched as Liam Welham crossed for his second try of the contest to give the Rovers a 20 point advantage and all but seal the game for the league leaders.

Halifax cut the deficit as they finally showed some of the incisive play and attacking guile that they are known for, but had been absent until this point in the contest. A chip kick from Ben Black was collected by Dylan Nash, who passed to Luke Branhigan who combined with an onrushing Frank Watene to put winger Paul White in for the score. Luck seemed to be against Fax though as Lee Paterson's conversion attempt bounced off the uprights.

Determined to snatch at least a bonus point, Fax scored again, Ben Black squeezing over after Frank Watene put Shad Royston through a gap who was then able to offload for Black to close the gap back down to 10 points.

That would be all  for Fax and this rounded off a disappointing evening with the side suffering only their second home league loss of the season, although the bonus point takes them level on points with 2^nd placed Leigh, they will be frustrated at missing the chance to really put pressure on Featherstone at the top of the table. 

Halifax: Shad Royston, Paul White, Jon Goddard, Lee Paterson, Rob Worrincy, Luke Branhigan, Ben Black, Makali Aizue, Mark Gleeson, Michael Ostick, Dylan Nash, Stephen Bannister, Bob Beswick

Subs: Sean Penkywicz, Stanley Gene, Frank Watene, Dominic Maloney

Tries: Branhigan, White, Black

Goals: Paterson (2)

Featherstone: Ian Hardman, Tommy Saxton, Liam Welham, Sam Smeaton, Jessie Joe Parker, Kyle Briggs, Liam Finn, Stuart Dickens, Ben Kaye, Antony Tonks, Jamie Field, Tim Spears, Matty Dale

Subs: Andy Kain, Dane Manning, Iain Morrison, Ross Divorty

Tries: Welham (2), Field, Parker, Divorty

Goals: Briggs (3)

Referee: M Thomason