There was one standout game from the six fixtures scheduled for round fifteen of the Betfred Championship when the two one-hundred-percenters, Featherstone Rovers and Toulouse Olympique XIII, met in a top of the table battle.
But that wasn’t the only fixture to get the juices flowing with Halifax Panthers hosting the Bradford Bulls, Newcastle Thunder facing Whitehaven and Oldham at home to the London Broncos. Dewsbury had a home game against the leagues' whipping boys, the Swinton Lions while the final game was between the Widnes Vikings and Batley Bulldogs.
The game between the Sheffield Eagles and York City Knights fell victim to another dreaded Coronavirus cancellation.
The game between the leagues two leaders initially met expectations. A single first half try from Peyroux was converted by Kheirallah for a 6-0 lead which was extended soon after the restart by Sangare. Gale got Rovers on the board on fifty-five but Peyroux grabbed his second of the game for 16-6 on the hour mark. A Gigot drop goal on seventy-two put the result beyond doubt and a Casty converted try two minutes later gave Toulouse a 23-6 win.
It was a humdinger of a match between Halifax and Bradford as the two West Yorkshire rivals went head to head on Yorkshire Day. Woodburn-Hall put the Panthers ahead in the second minute but Pickersgill responded before Worthington and Saltonstall edged Halifax 14-4 ahead, a Doyle try late in the first half reducing the half time arrears to just four points. England and Brown scored in the opening quarter hour of the second half for 20-14 in favour of the Bulls. Harris got a converted try on sixty-eight to level the scores at 20-20 before a Flanagan drop-goal looked like it might have won the game for Bradford. But a second Saltonstall try on seventy-five put Halifax 24-21 up and the Bulls coundn’t find any more points.
Swinton Lions finally registered their first points of the season with a fantastic win over the Dewsbury Rams by 22-18. Swinton got an early lead through Buckley but Fleming and Magrin scored for the home side for a 12-4 half time lead. Day added a further Rams try shorty after the restart for 18-4 and with half an hour remaining it looked like another Swinton loss. But two tries in three minutes from Brogan and Cox got Swinton to within two points before a Hansen penalty levelled the scores. In a nail-biting finish, Hansen crossed in the seventy-ninth for a fourth Swinton try and despite being unable to convert he secured the win by 22-18.
Time also ran out for Newcastle in another lower scoring encounter against Whitehaven. Ta’ai and Gill put Newcastle 12-2 up after and early Walmsley penalty and a try from Williams just after the half hour was responded to with a Thunder penalty on the stroke of half time, the home side 14-6 up at the break. The second half was all ‘Haven with tries from Dixon and Bulman giving the visitors a 20-14 win.
London picked up an important win against Oldham despite a couple of scares. Ince put Oldham ahead but Walters responded just before the break for London to trail 8-6 at the interval. Dupree extended Oldhams lead before Miski scored again for London so they trailed 14-12. A try from Reilly, and a penalty goal from Abram, looked to have seen Oldham home at 20-12 but three London tries in the last ten minutes from Miski, Sammut and Jones stole the win for the travelling Broncos.
The final game of the afternoon saw the Batley Bulldogs triumph by 34-16 over a Widnes Vikings side who are struggling with consistency in 2021. Buchanan put Batley into an early lead by tries from Cross and Craven sent Widnes into the interval with a 10-6 lead. This was extended on forty-eight thanks to a second Cross try for 16-6 but then Batley sprang into action with twenty-eight unanswered points. Hall scored twice with Leak, Manning and Edwards all getting a four-pointer to seal a big win.
