Featherstone Rovers: Sharp's words of praise for top Rhinos trio

All three featured in the 22-12 Kingstone Press Championship defeat at Bradford Bulls two days ago, which was the first time Featherstone have utilised their new partnership with Leeds.

“I was pleased with them,” Sharp – the Rovers coach – said. “They slotted in really well.

“I liked their attitude in training during the week and I thought they came into the game and had a dig.

“Achurch was excellent, he made a couple of breaks. Baldwinson [who spent last year at Featherstone] looked like he had never left and Handley put some good things together.”

Of Rovers’ performance, Sharp added: “I was really pleased with large parts of it.

“Defensively I thought we were really good, but we put ourselves under too much pressure with too many errors and a lot of penalties against us.

“The penalties came in blocks, so we have gone four straight penalties before they scored their second try and in the second half there were three straight. An 11-4 penalty count against us made a tough job even more difficult.”

Second-row Jamie Cording suffered a rib injury. Sharp said: “He’s had x-rays and we don’t think it’s as bad as first feared.”