This Sunday winner takes all as Featherstone Rovers take on Bradford Bulls for a place in the Qualifiers.
Arguably the biggest game of the season will take place at Post Office Road when Featherstone and Bradford fight for the last remaining place in the Qualifiers. Both sides are on 28 points which means that with one game left, winning is the only thing that matters.
Ahead of this must-win game the Bradford Bulls head coach, Rohan Smith, said:
“It has been a good week so far and training has been good quality so we are looking to get off to a flier on Sunday. We have had two good wins against Whitehaven and Oldham and played strongly at Leigh prior to that so we have put in some good performances in recent weeks.”
Featherstone are going into this game with a lot of momentum following their three wins on the trot. Two of those wins came against fellow top 4 contenders and John Sharp’s side have certainly earned this huge fixture on Sunday.
Jamie Cording is one of the Featherstone players who will miss Sunday’s game. The 26 year old picked up an injury during the game with Batley and missed last weeks win over Halifax. He said:
I’m obviously devastated to be missing probably the two most important games of the season. Now we are into our grand final. Training was ramped up a bit just before the Batley game. The intensity of training had gone up a notch obviously in line with the intensity of these big games.
You can listen to the full interview with Jamie Cording here…
Bradford also come into this game with some momentum. They have won two games on the bounce and will look to secure a place in the Qualifiers with a win against Featherstone.
Earlier this season Bradford beat Featherstone 22-12, with Omari Caro scoring a hat trick. The 25 year old is the league’s second highest try scorer and last week crossed the line 5 times as Bradford thumped Oldham.
This is certainly going to be a close game between two sides who at the start of the season set their sights on a top 4 finish.
However, while Featherstone are building for the future, many believe that if Bradford don’t reach the top division, their future might not be a long one.
Here are the two squads ahead of Sunday’s game…
Featherstone Rovers: Channing, Taulapapa, Briggs Thackeray, Griffin, Bostock, Snitch, Davies, Spears, Hardman, Ormondroyd, Cooper, Tagg, Ellis, Ward, Briscoe, Baldwinson, Golding and Mullally.
Bradford Bulls: Blythe, Pitts, Chisholm, Charnock, O’Brien, Sidlow, Haggerty, Ferguson, Olbison, Caro, Mellor, Addy, Philbin, Welham, Howarth, Moss, Kavanagh, Gaskell and Clare
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