All of the round seventeen matches in the 2022 Betfred Championship took place over Saturday and Sunday with the game between Featherstone Rovers and Newcastle Thunder taking place on Saturday evening, the rest of the games being traditional Sunday afternoon kick-offs.
Those Sunday games included, Widnes at Workington, Barrow at York, Whitehaven at Batley, table topping Leigh at Bradford, Halifax against Dewsbury and Sheffield making the trip to London to face the Broncos.
After losing last time to Batley, Featherstone made no further slip-ups as they demolished Newcastle by 58-22. It was an electric opening for the home side with tries from Kheirallah, Smith, Broadbent (2), Leilua and Bussey within the opening twenty minutes as the flat cappers raced into a 30-0 lead. Moors added another before half time but not until after Johnson and Mullen scored for Thunder for a 36-12 half time score line. Eaves grabbed another for Newcastle just after the restart before Bussey got his second of the game. Newcastle´s final try came on fifty-two with Boafo going in, prompting another Fev´ onslaught. Broadbent added two more tries for a personal haul of four with Jones rounding off proceedings and a comprehensive win.
Batley and Whitehaven played out a rare draw which will suit the Cumbrian side more than the Bulldogs. Hooley, Meadows and Morton had given the home side a 14-0 lead inside the opening quarter of an hour, but King responded with two tries for ´Haven to narrow the arrears to two points. Morton and Campbell both scored just before the break for 22-12. Whitehaven had a great start to the second half with tries from Hudson and Bulman and when Le Cam scored on fifty-eight it was 26-22 to the visitors who looked like snatching a surprise win. Morton completed his hattrick for the Bulldogs with six minutes remaining and with the conversion missed the game was tied and the points shared.
Widnes got back to winning ways as they thrashed bottom club Workington by 38-0. Fozard (2), Wilde and Baker all scored in the first half for 26-0 at the interval with Dixon and Wilde adding a second after the break to seal an easy win.
The league leaders, Leigh Centurions, continued their winning run with a 56-6 demolition of the Bradford Bulls. Asiata, Amone, Smith and Inu scored first half tries to give the Centurions a 22-0 half time lead with Asiata adding another on forty-eight to further extend the Bulls deficit. The home side´s only try of the game came through Gill on the hour mark and then the flood gates opened with another two tries from Inu, a brace from O´Donnell and one from Ipape with no response.
It was the archetypal game of two halves between the London Broncos and Sheffield Eagles. The Eagles set off like a train with a Jones-Bishop hat-trick, a Welham brace and one from Laulu-Togagae seeing them soar into a 28-0 lead with just over thirty minutes on the clock. It was a lead that Sheffield carried to the break, the Broncos with no response and looking down the barrel of another big loss. But it was a sensational second half fightback with Albert, Grant, Hall, Moceidrake, Macani and Walker all getting over the whitewash, Leyland adding six conversions in the 36-28 win.
Barrow stunned the York City Knights when they beat them in their own back yard by 24-16. There was little to choose between the sides in the first half with Sammut and Brown exchanging tries early on, Shaw adding a second for Barrow for 12-6 at the interval. Shaw added a second for 18-6 before tries from Pauli and a second from Brown reduced the arrears to just two points. The killer blow came with a minute remaining as Sammut got his second of the afternoon to seal the win.
Dewsbury´s woes continue as they were no match for the Halifax Panthers. Gee, for Halifax, and Turner exchanged early tries but with Walmsley and Arundel scoring before the interval the visitors had a 14-6 lead. Four tries in nineteen second half minutes from Martin, Tibbs, Kavanagh and Jouffret killed the game making the late Greensmith try for the Rams mere consolation as they crashed by 12-38.
