FEATHERSTONE Rovers completed a remarkable three-week turn-around from bottom-of-the table mediocrity to instal themselves as the Betfred Championship’s form side with a comprehensive 46-4 rout of Batley Bulldogs at Post Office Road.
New signing James Glover emerged as the man-of-the-match award-winner on his home debut scoring two tries and helping to lay on two more in an-eight-try cruise for Rovers, who oozed confidence from the off.
The home side went into the match on the back of a thumping 40-14 win at Oldham which booked them an 1895 Cup final date with York Knights at Wembley on Saturday, June 7.
Their task against Batley was to harness their blistering Boundary Park form on the Betfred Championship stage on home soil after just two wins in their four opening league fixtures.
Glover and loan signing Nathan Wilde came into Paul Cooke’s starting side along with the fit-again Brad Day with Connor Wynne and club captain Danny Addy among those rested.
Rovers made a strong defensive start, forcing Batley to kick from inside their own half at the end of the early attacking sets.
The home side cruised in for their first try in the ninth minute, Olpherts stepping over unopposed in the right corner after clever work from Hampshire and Aekins created a clear overlap.
Reynolds kicked the conversion and 90 seconds later he scampered home under the posts for Rovers’ second try to finish off Glover’s line break, again adding the conversion to give the home side a 12-0 lead.
The Rovers defence then did its bit as Batley tried to respond, holding Bulldogs hooker Moore on the line.
Glover slipped over for try No 3 when Reynolds, who converted again, returned the compliment to put Glover through and his dummy wrong-footed the covering defence.
Rovers maintained their early momentum,and forcing Batley to start most of their attacking sets in their own 20 metre area.
Rovers capitalised again on 30 minuteswhen O’Connor and Hampshire combined cleverly to give Hampshire an easy run-in under posts, making the conversion easy for Reynolds.
A superb 40-20 from Hampshire gave Rovers another attacking platform and they whipped the ball quickly along the line to leave Gale with a walk-in the right corner with Reynolds converting from the touchline for his fifth goal of an increasingly one-sided contest..
Leading 30-0 at half-time after barely putting a foot wrong in the opening 40 minutes, Rovers’ biggest enemy in the second half was complacency, but they were straight back on the front foot at the re-start with Arnold knocking on just short of the Bulldogs line.
Hampshire’s clever up-and-under almost led to another Rovers try in the 53rdminute, but O’Connor knocked on in the right corner after Olpherts chased hard and flipped the ball back for his teammate.
Normal service was resumed when Reynolds, Day and Glover combined down the left and Glover’s inside pass left Jones with an easy run-in for try No6 with the metronomic Reynolds converting again.
Within a minute, Rovers crossed again when Glover scampered in under the posts after Day’s offload sent Jonesthrough and his pass left Glover with an easy finish which Hampshire converted for a 42-0 lead with 17 minutes to play.
Batley broke their duck when Greensmith barrelled over from close range, but the score went unconverted when Woods’kick from wide on the left went wide.
Rovers stretched their lead again on 68 minutes when Hardcastle forced his way over for an unconverted try to finish off after good work from O’Connor sucked in three Bulldogs defenders close to the line.
Olpherts butchered an easy chance for Rovers, dropping the ball on the Batley line when it would have been easier to score in the right corner.
But that did little to detract from an impressive all-round display from a Rovers side which now appears to have the bit between its teeth in the build up to next month’s trip to Wembley.
Featherstone Rovers: Aekins, Olpherts, O’Connor, Gale, Reynolds, Hampshire, Springer, Jubb, Beckett, Day, Webb, Wilde.
Interchanges: Jones, Hardcastle, Arnold, Vuniyayawa.
Batley Bulldogs: Foulstone, Dean, Greensmith, Kear, Burton, White, Woods, Gledhill, Moore, Cooper, Manning, Flynn, Brown.
Interchanges: Leak, Ward, Shaw, High.
Referee: Cameron Worsley