Featherstone Rovers: Hardman and Taulapapa at the top of Sharp's captaincy shortlist

Previous skipper Tim Spears has joined York City Knights, who Rovers beat 46-4 in Hardman’s testimonial game two days ago.

Hardman scored a brace of tries against York and coach Jon Sharp said: “He played extremely well, he is an epitome of being a good pro.

“He really rallies the troops, he has had the captaincy in all three [pre-season] games and he looks ageless. His performances have been excellent.”

Sharp said Taulapapa is also “in the mix” to take over the armband, but he stressed: “I’ve not made a decision yet. It’s not something I’m losing sleep over.

“I’d like to think we have got half a dozen leaders on the field, so overall it’s not a big talking point for me.”

Rovers have a 100 per cent record in their trial games so far and Sharp was pleased with the way they played against York.

“We got off to a great start,” he said. “We scored at a point-per-minute for the first 20 and then I made some changes and gave some other blokes an opportunity and we continued with the good stuff we’ve been showing.

“We’ve got through another game with no injuries and that was a priority, so I was pleased with what we did.”