Sean Long calls for “accountability” after his side struggle to put away 10-man Sheffield

Yesterday, Featherstone Rovers defeated Sheffield Eagles to maintain their unbeaten start to the season and claim a six point lead at the top of the table.

However, they had to fight tooth and nail for the win. It was 16-all entering the last 15 minutes, there were tries a piece as the Rovers took a 22-20 advantage.

As Sheffield pushed for a winner, the Rovers wrapped it up claiming a 28-20 win.

That only tells half the story however.

What was truly remarkable was the fact that Sheffield went down to 10 men after three yellow cards.

Fortunately, Featherstone were also reduced to 12 men in this period so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

Now Featherstone boss Sean Long has had his say on the game on Rovers TV.

“Frustrating. It was exciting for the neutral but probably not for me and Mark,” he said.

“I thought Sheffield played really well, they threw the ball around as expected.

“I thought that our resilience on our try line in the first half when we defended four sets and then Briscoe went the full length, so it’s still there.

“We’re working really really hard for one another but we’re just making it hard for ourselves and doing too much defending.”

He then called on his staff players to have more accountability:

“We need to take a bit more accountability as staff and as players to make it a bit easier.

“I’m happy with the win 100% because they came here with a plan to knock us off, but like I say there’s still a lot of work going forward.

“I can’t fault the lad’s effort because they’ll fight till the end but we can just make it easier for ourselves by not making four yardage errors and giving away six penalties.

“Especially when they’re down to 11 men, you need your spine and leaders to step up and say ‘let’s go put it in the corner’. You don’t need to go winning games twice.

“Hats off to them though, the efforts there but we just need to play a little bit smarter and I won’t be going bald.”