Featherstone Rovers: Brian McDermott takes positives from Challenge Cup defeat

Josh McAllister 27 Mar 2022 11:39 AM

Brian McDermott looked to the positives as Catalans were pushed all the way by his spirited Featherstone Rovers side.

Steve McNamara’s Dragons left it late to book their place in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals with a hard-fought 27-14 win.

Tries in the last 20 minutes from Tyrone May and Tom Davies spared the Dragons’ blushes against a rugged and resilient Rovers.

It was the Championship side who took an early 10-0 lead through Brandon Pickersgill and Joey Leilua.

Catalans hit back through winger Fouad Yaha, who crossed twice before the break to cut the deficit to 10-8.

Former NRL centre Leilua crossed for his second on 42 minutes. However, tries from Sam Kasiano, May and Davies saw the Super League side book their place in the next round.

Featherstone Rovers boss takes positives

Despite the defeat, Featherstone’s head coach took positives from the hard-fought fixture in Perpignan.

“We had a brilliant start and caught Catalans out but we just couldn’t get a grip of the second half,” McDermott said.

“We’re disappointed with the result but we found out a lot about ourselves today.

“We could have gone through and kept the Challenge Cup dream alive for another weekend. But we found a little more about ourselves. We had a scratchy performance last week and we’ve put that to bed.

“In spells there we looked very good but in other spells we looked tired and Catalans’ kicking game at the end of sets was outstanding.”

Challenge Cup: Quarter-finals draw made