Leeds Rhinos trio impress for Featherstone Rovers

Jarrod O'Connor in pre-season action against Featherstone. Picture by Bruce Rollinson.

Leeds Rhinos winger Luke Briscoe, stand-off Callum McLelland and loose-forward Jarrod O’Connor were “outstanding,” in Featherstone’s 38-18 Betfred Championship win at Batley Bulldogs, according to Rovers coach James Webster.

“I thought Jarrod, on debut against men - his first open-age game - got around the pitch really well and will only get better,” Webster - who has a part-time role as assistant-coach at Leeds - said.

“He played 35 minutes striaght in the middle which, for a young kid, was really good."

McLelland and Briscoe have impressed for Rovers in the past and Webster added: “Callum was in our top couple of players, as he always is and Luke carried the ball extremely well and took a fantastic try in the corner.

Callum McLelland. Picture by Jonathan Gawthorpe.

"He and Callum got together and came up with a really special play. I was really happy with them.”

Webster described Rovers’ opening league performance as “solid”.

He said: “Batley made it difficult for us on a difficult pitch and I was happy to get away with a 20-point win.

"They scored from a kick and a couple of other sloppy things.

"I thought we were easily the better team, but they made it dogged and hard for us.

"Brett Ferres [the former Rhinos forward on his competitive debut] was outstanding and we caused them all kinds of problems on that left-edge.

"We just couldn't quite put four or five chances away, but we will get better."

Rovers will be without scrum-half Dane Chisholm for Sunday’s visit of Halifax. He received a three-match ban after being sin-binned for a dangerous tackle in a pre-season win over Leeds.

"He'll miss two games in the Challenge Cup so that's a good opportunity for [Loiuis] Jouffret or [Jake Sweeting]."