Championship round-up: Featherstone Rovers flex muscles to deliver another ominous warning

Rovers were stunned by Batley Bulldogs in the play-off semi-finals last season but the early signs are they are a different beast under Sean Long.

Fresh from a resounding 50-0 win at Championship new boys Keighley Cougars, Featherstone were far too strong for a Halifax team tipped for another play-off challenge.

Off-season recruit Chris Hankinson opened the scoring and Rovers had a second try inside the opening 10 minutes when Gadwin Springer touched down.

Matty Wildie and new signing Caleb Aekins got in on the act to make it 24-0 and end the game as a contest.

Lachlan Walmsley got Halifax on the board before the interval but Featherstone quickly reasserted their dominance in the early stages of the second half courtesy of tries from Aekins and Riley Dean.

Connor Jones and Gareth Gale added their names to the scoresheet and not even Walmsley's second and James Woodburn-Hall's brace could take the shine off a second statement victory of the opening week for Long's men.

Last year's League 1 champions Keighley are still waiting for their first win after going down 26-18 at Widnes Vikings.

The game was in the balance with 15 minutes to go after Luke Gale scored his second try to make it 18-18 but John Kear's revitalised Vikings finished strongly to take the spoils, thanks in no small part to Ryan Millar's hat-trick.

Widnes, who are two from two after seeing off York Knights in round one, will aim to maintain their perfect start when they travel to Bradford Bulls next week.

Sheffield Eagles opened their 2023 account with an impressive 36-16 victory over Barrow Raiders.

Kris Welham and Ross Oakes each scored doubles and Matty Dawson-Jones, Bayley Liu and Anthony Thackeray also crossed at the home of the Raiders, who reached the play-offs last season.

Batley – beaten Grand Finalists in 2022 – were unable to back up their round one win at London Broncos as they went down 30-16 at home to Swinton Lions.

Craig Lingard's side led 16-6 in the early stages of the second half thanks to tries from Lucas Walshaw, Dane Manning and Kieran Buchanan but they had no answer to Swinton in the final quarter.

London made the long trip up to Cumbria to take on Whitehaven and left with the two competition points courtesy of a 20-16 win.

On Saturday, Toulouse Olympique showed they are serious about an immediate return to Super League in a 58-0 rout of Newcastle Thunder.

Guy Armitage scored two of Toulouse's 11 tries, with on-loan Hull KR prop Greg Richards among the hosts' other scorers.

York and Bradford will bring the curtain down on round two in front of the Viaplay cameras at the LNER Community Stadium on Monday night.