Championship friendlies: Comfortable wins in appalling conditions for Rams, Rovers and Bulldogs

Both sides deserve huge credit for getting the game on, despite atrocious conditions, as veteran half-back Paul Sykes celebrated his testimonial following an outstanding career which has seen him play over 400 professional games and scored in excess of 2,000 points.

Centre James Glover opened the scoring with a 15th minute try following good work by winger Rob Worrincy before Lucas Walshaw drove over for the Rams second try but Sykes was unable to add either conversion.

A neat Sykes pass sent Glover away and he cut inside to grab his second try, with Sykes converting for a 14-0 interval lead.

Dominic Speakman broke from the base of a scrum and dummied his way over for the Rams fourth try early in the second half.

Gareth Moore dropped a pass with the line beckoning after Macauley Hallett charged down a Bulls kick but the Rams sealed victory with a fifth try 13 minutes from full-time,

Winger Dale Morton collected Hallett’s outside pass and acrobatically dived over in the corner and Sykes brilliantly curled over the conversion to gap an impressive display on his big day.

Meanwhile, second-row forward Connor Farrell bagged two tries as Featherstone Rovers completed a hat-trick of pre-season wins by beating York City Knights 22-12 at LD Nutrition Stadium.

Championship side Rovers were 6-0 down after just three minutes but they hit back to grind out a narrow victory against hard-working League One opponents.

Rovers struggled to put their game together in appalling conditions which inevitably led to numerous handling errors by both teams.

They came out on top thanks to late tries from Farrell and Frankie Mariano.

Featherstone had fallen behind quickly though when York prop Adam Robinson’s early score was goaled by Connor Robinson.

Elsewhere, Batley Bulldogs record a comfortable 24-0 victory over Keighley Cougars.