Featherstone 14-34 Hull: Brett Hodgson’s side to face Wigan in quarter-finals

Hull FC booked a date with Wigan in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals after beating Featherstone Rovers 34-14 at the Millennium Stadium.

The Super League side ran in six tries, with Carlos Tuimavave and Josh Griffin grabbing braces as they proved too strong for their Championship opponents.

Jake Connor ran the show for the Black and Whites, with the full-back landing five from six conversions and having a hand in several tries.

Hull FC were without normal halfback pairing Marc Sneyd and Josh Reynolds through injury, with Ben McNamara and hooker Danny Houghton drafted in to replace them.

Jordan Johnstone started at hooker instead, with Joe Cator joining the bench.

It was a perfect start for Featherstone after they won the ball back from the kick-off. They immediately used it to their advantage, with Josh Hardcastle crossing off a kick in the first minute.

Craig Hall could not add the extras but Rovers were ahead 4-0.

That was as good as it got, however, with the visitors hitting back just two minutes later.

Bureta Faraimo won the race to Houghton’s kick to touch down in the corner. Connor nailed the conversion from the sideline to put Hull ahead.

Hull were in again three minutes later, this time through Tuimavave. Hall fumbled the ball at the back and Tuimavave swooped to score.

Connor’s conversion attempt was unsuccessful but the Super League outfit had a 10-4 lead.

Featherstone managed to stem the tide for the next 12 minutes, before Griffin glided over for his first four-pointer – after a fortunate rebounded kick – for the Black and Whites’ third try of the evening. Connor added the extras to make it 16-4.

Hull were almost in again shortly afterwards, but Faraimo’s pass was ruled forward and the try was chalked off.

It mattered little as in the 25th minute Griffin brushed through some soft defence to crash over and Connor extended the lead to 18 points.

The pain continued for Featherstone when Tuimavave brought up his brace with a mazy run. Connor’s conversion was perfect, taking the score to 28-4.

The Black and Whites went into half-time 34-4 ahead after Jordan Johnstone touched down through a beautiful runaround with Brad Fash.

Rovers started the second half strongly when Brett Ferres won the race to score off Fa’amanu Brown’s grubber kick. Hall could not add the extras, so the lead remained 34-8.

Hull lost Griffin to a concussion test two minutes later.

Featherstone stepped up their attacks but the east Yorkshire side’s defence was difficult to breach.

The home team were over in the corner through Ben Blackmore in the 62nd minute, but the try was ruled out because of Ferres’ forward pass.

But five minutes later Blackmore got through to score off Dane Chisholm’s kick. Chisholm added the extras to bring the score up to 34-12.

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