Marshall reflects on “tough” day as Rovers run riot in second half

Rovers were indebted to young Leeds centre Harry Newman for two long range touchdowns, including a gamebreaker on the stroke of half time which gave the home side an 18-4 interval lead.

Fax’s failings were alarmingly familiar; the concession of 40 points for the second time in four Championship starts with poor discipline and decision making a major source of angst.

“That was a tough day for us,” admitted Marshall.

“I thought Featherstone were outstanding, that’s the best I’ve seen them play; it really clicked for them today.

“We’ve conceded too many points again and the discipline was an issue, again.

“There was a big swing just before half time with the Newman interception; it was probably them or us at that point.

“Either we were going to score or they were and to go in at 18-4 down was a big moment in the game.

“It might have been a different game then, but it was always going to be difficult coming up the hill.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, as a group and me as a coach and we’ll be looking to do that this week.

“We had an honest chat in there, which you do when performances go awry, and hopefully that’s a blip.

“We won last week against Batley but we didn’t play too well and we certainly didn’t play too well today.

“We need to look at how we’re defending and what our values are - how we’re trying to play, what we’re trying to do to the opposition - because we got rolled today.

“Featherstone did a real job on us, but we’ve lost games before and come through and we’ll do it again.”

The game was largely memorable for the dense fog that swept over the ground during the second half, limiting visibility for players, coaches and spectators.

“We didn’t lose because of the fog,” said Marshall.

“We couldn’t see a lot and I missed some of the tries we conceded, which was probably a good thing today.

“It was a surreal atmosphere at times.

“It’s not an excuse, you just get on with it.”

Fax lost France forward Kevin Larroyer before the break, with back rower unable to return after failing his concussion assessment.

“Kevin had some dental work in the week and he got another knock on that,” said Marshall, whose side host Swinton at the Shay next Sunday (3.0).

“He failed his head test as well, so we’ll need to monitor him through the week.”