NRC Preview: York v Featherstone

Sunday February 13th – 3pm

Dennis Tuffour and Nathan Freer will return for York City Knights, but James Haynes (neck), Sam Lynch (hamstring) and Rhys Clarke (broken hand) are all still missing.

York lost 24-20 at Barrow on Sunday, but coach Dave Woods is upbeat.

He said: “We did some really good things in patches, but we let them off the hook with some cheap penalties. We also gave the ball over without any pressure on four or five occasions.

“However, there was some bad luck in there too, in that their last try was scored on the seventh tackle and their first try was scored with a pass off the floor. Neither of those should have stood.”

Woods is expecting a huge challenge against Featherstone Rovers. He said: “Featherstone are probably the best team in the competition.

“They’re very consistent and very rarely play a bad game. They grind you down, they’re pretty relentless, and they can score from anywhere on the pitch.”

Featherstone scored 11 tries during their 54-10 win over Doncaster last week. Ross Divorty (knee) remains a long-term injury absentee, but James Davey could make his return following a recent hamstring strain.

Rovers coach Daryl Powell is hoping for more of the same after watching last week’s performance. We did some smart stuff at times in the first-half and we got better in the second period.”