Featherstone coach Ryan Carr looking for bounce back from Rovers at Halifax

Rovers were shocked 38-16 at home by second-bottom Barrow last week, a result which cost them the chance of going second in the Betfred Championship table. Carr’s men are back in action tomorrow’s when they visit Halifax (3pm) and he is confident his team will come up with the right response.

“Every time you lose you want to play well the next week,” Carr said. “That’s footy, you have your highs and you have your lows. We’ve had a lot of highs the last two months and we’ve had a low. It’s how we respond now.”

Carr insisted: “We can’t control the result, all we can control is how we play. All we are looking to do is play well and the result will take care of itself if we do that.”

Cutting out unforced mistakes is the priority.

“There were too many individual errors – everyone threw their bad day into the same game, unfortunately,” Carr said of last Sunday’s loss. Barrow had a good crack and they didn’t make errors. It’s a simple game. We know in our own little bubble what went wrong and how we are going to fix it and that’s all that matters to us.”

Halifax’s league form has dropped off since they qualified for the semi-finals of the Coral Challenge Cup, but Carr warned: “They have got some good players who have been around this competition for a long time and it’s a hard place to play over there.

“They have been really good there this year and we are excited by it, getting over there and having a good game against quality opposition, but the focus is on us, not anyone else.”

Last week’s defeat dropped Rovers to fifth, two points behind fourth-placed York City Knights and ahead of Sheffield Eagles on for and against.

“We aren’t looking at the table,” Carr stressed. “There’s too many games to go. I know it’s tight, but if we get caught up in looking at other teams and hoping they win or lose, we will get distracted from what matters most. That’s what we are thinking and how we are approaching each week.”

n York’s ex-Hull KR and Wakefield utility Ben Cockayne has announced his retirement. Cockayne, 35, needs a knee reconstruction and has decided to call time on his career.