Bad news for Featherstone Rovers after shock defeat

The goal of every club should be to join Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and St Helens in the Betfred Super League.

But the route to the Super League is set to change and no longer be determined by winning the Championship Grand Final.

Instead the route to Super League will be determined via the IMG grades. This is bad news for Featherstone Rovers in the eyes of many who feel that they are disadvantaged by the grading especially as they even voted against the proposals.

Thus, their defeat to London Broncos was doubly bad.

They were blown away by London from the first minute. They got off to an electric start with Alex Walker scoring from an inside ball before a lovely move down the left wing allowed former Super League star and Catalans Dragons centre Dean Whare to score.

Featherstone gave themselves a chance with a try for Chris Hankinson on his 200th appearance.

It was well and truly game on when Joey Leilua crossed six minutes before the break and it looked set to be level at the interval but the away side notched another try and a second for Alex Walker as he fired the Broncos back in front.

Featherstone needed a reaction but it didn’t come with the Broncos crossing again in the 52nd way with Whare setting up Iliess Macani finishing off the move and giving them a 24-12 lead.

At that scoreline, Featherstone still had hope but the Broncos made it two tries in three minutes through Dalton Grant after a sublime move down the left edge.

Around this time things got worse for Fev with Brad Day sin binned for a tackle that went above the horizontal.

A sixth try followed from Henry Raiwalui scored next as former Super League and NRL star Corey Norman pulled the strings.

Hankinson notched a second try but by now the game was all but gone especially as the conversion was missed.

With 15 minutes to go, London had a 20 point lead and had one foot in the Grand Final against Toulouse Olympique.

The Rovers gave themselves half a chance with 10 minutes to go when Luke Briscoe crossed to make it 36-20 with Mark Kheirallah converting.

10 to go and there was 14 points in it, half a chance for the Rovers. They had more of a chance when Joey Leilua scored a second to make it 36-26.