Rochdale Hornets versus Featherstone Rovers preview

Alan Kilshaw looks ahead to the game against Featherstone Rovers

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Rochdale Hornets travel to Featherstone Rovers on Sunday afternoon in only their second away outing of the 2017 season, looking to bounce back from a second successive defeat last week.

They went down 20-6 at home to Halifax in a disappointing afternoon, making it back-to-back losses at the Crown Oil Arena.

Hornets season got off to a brilliant start with a convincing victory over Dewsbury Rams and a famous win at Odsal over Bradford Bulls, but after setting the pace early on they have slipped down to fifth in the table.

Last week coach Alan Kilshaw asked for a response from his players, but felt they didn’t step up to the challenge.

Kilshaw said: “From an effort point of view we got a response, but I didn’t question their effort last week I questioned how smart they were with the ball and without it as well.

“We weren’t smart and our decision making was very poor.

“We started really well, at 6-0 up we should have made it 12-0 but we bombed a try, and ultimately we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the game.

“We are very disappointed and we have a very flat group because we didn’t play anywhere near how we can play.”

Kilshaw cut a dejected figure in his post-match interview and it was obvious that he felt the defeat as much as the supporters and players on the day.

Despite being disappointed with the performances of some of his key players in attack, he was quick to praise their defensive efforts throughout.

He said: “Scott Murrell really bossed it for them, he kicked well and we didn’t get that from our halfbacks and I am disappointed with them.

“It’s not just on their shoulders it is also other players in the team, I just think sometimes we overplayed and sometimes we made the wrong decisions.

“We are only week four in a 30 game season and we will improve, I am just disappointed we didn’t improve some of the things we focused on from last week, we can accept getting beat sometimes but not how we played.

“Our goal-line defence and our defence in general was very good and one of their three tries was scored when we only had 11 men, so there are positives in there.

“The effort and desire was in there, but we need to be smarter with the ball and show better composure.”

Featherstone Rovers will be one of their toughest opponents this year, especially away from home, as they have won all four of their fixtures so far this season and are behind Hull KR on points difference only.

In their last outing they performed a second-half comeback to see off a spirited Swinton Lions in a 13-30 away triumph.

The last time the two sides met was at Spotland Stadium, during the 2014 Championship season, when Hornets pulled off a shock 38-34 victory.

After two defeats Kilshaw could make changes to the side which will face Featherstone and Miles Greenwood remains out with an abdominal injury.

Kilshaw said: “We were planning on rotating the side anyway for the trip to Featherstone because there are a couple of players on the fringes who deserve a run out.

“It’s a tough place to go, especially off the back of two defeats so we might freshen the group up but we will have to check up on injuries first.”