It was a derby Good Friday for the Championship as five matches followed Wednesday's encounter between Doncaster and Sheffield Eagles.
Over six thousand were at Odsal to watch Bradford take on Halifax while just down the road, Batley played host to Dewsbury. The Cumbrian derby saw Workington at home to Whitehaven. That is where the fixture boffins ran out of short journeys and sent London Broncos on a long trip north to Featherstone, while giving Leigh Centurions a slightly shorter journey to Hunslet.
Once the dust, or should that be mud, had settled, the top four were unchanged but the biggest mover was the London Broncos who won again to lift themselves to fifth.
The first game of the round was on Wednesday night when the ground sharing Doncaster and Sheffield caught over the home dressing room. It was plain sailing for the Eagles against their pointless landlords and tries from Langley, Taulapapa and Stringer saw them 16-0 up at the break. Doncaster scored their only try of the game through Doherty on fifty-one but two more from Worrincy and Aston in the last seven minutes sealed a 26-6 win for the leagues third placed side.
The largest victory of the round was witnessed in Cumbria where Workington hammered Whitehaven by 40-0 leaving the visitors averaging less than ten points a game. First half tries from McAvoy, Doran and Forber had opened a 16-0 half time lead and Haven had no answer as Stack, Carter, Murphy and Whiteley all crossed in the second half.
There was the chance of a shock on the cards at the best attended game of the day where the Bulls trailed by 13-0 at half time in their home game with Halifax. Cahalane and Divorty, along with two goals from Tyrer and a drop goal from Murrell had put 'Fax in the box seat. The half time team talk from coach Lowes must have stripped the paint from the walls and his side responded with tries from Williams, Pitts and Gaskell to give the Bulls the lead within nine minutes of the restart. Henry had added another before Heaton went over for the visitors for 26-19. Shaw added a last Bulls try to seal the 32-19 win.
Down the road at Batley, Dewsbury took the points to maintain their top four spot thanks to tries by Grady (2), Farrell and Wildie. Rettie picked up the Bulldogs only four pointer in a 21-6 defeat.
It was a close first half at Hunslet where a thirty-sixth minute try from Wilkes converted by Ridyard was all that there was to separate the teams. When Briscoe scored for Hunslet early in the second half the scores were level at 6-6, but it was a false hope for the home supporters. Tries from Aspinwall, Kay and Barlow increased the Leigh lead to 22-6 before a frenzy of four tries in the last seven minutes, through Pownall, Penkywicz, Dixon and Kay sealed an emphatic 42-6 win for the league leaders.
London Broncos lifted themselves level on points with their hosts Featherstone Rovers thanks to a 24-8 victory. They had opened the scoring through Dwyer before Ormondroyd replied for the hosts for 4-6 at half time. Second half tries for Thomas and Williams (2) established a 24-4 lead before a last minute consolation for Featherstone through an unconverted Chappell try.
Monday sees a full programme of fixtures with the Bulls trip to high flying Dewsbury and the Eagles visit to Featherstone both looking like very intriguing match-ups which could effect league standings. |