Sheens angry as Rovers crash at Halifax

Tim Sheens admitted his players have put their places in doubt for the Qualifiers after falling to a 28-6 defeat at Halifax on Sunday.

The result was Rovers’ second defeat in a row and Sheens says he has plenty to ponder over the next few days.

“I’m not happy about this and I’ve made my feelings clear in the dressing room after the game,” he told the club’s official website.

“I’m certainly very disappointed to finish the way we have given the season we’ve had. We now start at zero points like everybody else in the Qualifiers and we’ve got two weeks to put it right.

“I wanted to be going into the Middle 8s with momentum, but as it is we’re going in with a virtually fully-fit squad, so that’s a plus, but probably the only one.

“Apart from (James) Donaldson and (Jordan) Abdull, we’re expecting everybody else will be available for selection for round one of the Qualifiers so we’ve got some options.

“I’m not going to say too much whilst emotions are high and until I’ve watched the game back, but we’ve got a lot of options in terms of selection.

“The players who came back from injury today all came through and there’s competition for places.

“Selection for that first game in the Qualifiers will take performances over the full season into account, but obviously what we’ve served up over the last two weeks will have a bearing as well.

“I wanted a response today and didn’t get it. We spoke before the game and said we wanted to win but that Halifax had to win. A team always finds a bit extra in that situation and we didn’t handle that at all.

“We didn’t have any ball in their third of the field for about twenty minutes of the first half, which is unusual for us.

“We were on the end of a heavy penalty count against us and with the errors we made when we did have the ball, we had very little possession.”