Featherstone Rovers 40 Sheffield Eagles 4: Finn leads Rovers to success as Eagles are grounded

Twelve months on from their heartbreaking ‘golden-point’ extra-time loss to Halifax, Daryl Powell’s resolute side returned to the Halliwell Jones Stadium yesterday to exorcise those ghosts and, this time, claimed the Championship Grand Final with veritable ease.

In fact, it was the widest winning margin in the final’s history and nothing they did not deserve.

Having finished with the League Leaders’ Shield for a second successive season, they needed to be ordained and so, with scrum-half Liam Finn so superior to anyone else in the greasy conditions, Rovers simply had too much command for error-strewn Sheffield Eagles.

“We needed to get that monkey off our back of winning something,” admitted former Leeds Rhinos coach Powell, speaking for himself as well as his stellar side.

“We’ve been consistently an outstanding league team and not quite finished things off but we’ll certainly enjoy this even if was not pretty at times.”

Featherstone eventually managed to control the wet conditions far better than Sheffield, who had hoped to re-create the magic of their last underdog performance when defeating Wigan Warriors in the 1998 Challenge Cup final.

Finn’s second try just before the break put Rovers 18-4 up but, in a scrappy final, Powell revealed he urged his side to be more conservative to take home the title.

“I told them to stop trying to play too much football,” he said.

“We’re a footballing side though and have played like that all year so they found that difficult.

“But finals are about winning. Once we reigned it in, we forced errors and field position and scored some classy tries.”

Jaded Sheffield had already done so much getting here it seemed they had little left for the main event.

Mark Aston’s side had finished sixth – the only team to ever reach the Grand Final from outside the top two – and had won at Widnes, Halifax and Leigh on consecutive weekends to slalom their way to Warrington.

But the size of the occasion seemed to alarm them in the opening minutes when the electric Andy Kain twice sliced them open with stunning runs to create tries for Tim Spears and the first of Finn’s brace.

They recovered suitably to get a foothold, Dane McDonald burrowing over from close range in the 13th minute with their first real attack, and seemed set to make the minor champions graft, just like Halifax.

But, after Finn’s second, full-back Ian Hardman latched onto Jonny Hepworth’s fine attack just two minutes into the second period, and there was no recovery.

“It was one game too far,” conceded Aston, Lance Todd Trophy winner on that memorable day at Wembley.

“We’ve been outstanding for six weeks but today we looked like we had no idea.

“If I’m honest, I saw it coming up through the week.

“They looked a little bit apprehensive. I tried to gee them up but you learn from big games and these are a group of young guys still learning the trade.

“You could see we lacked a little experience today and consistency while Featherstone were outstanding.”

Eratic Sheffield were fortunate to finish with 13 men when, in the 47th minute, prop Mitchell Stringer dropped a knee on Tom Saxton while the excellent winger was lying prone on the ground.

He escaped with just a penalty but it was no surprise when the game blew-up soon after with an ugly brawl which saw nearly every player involved, including brawny Featherstone prop Tony Tonks who will today join Huddersfield Giants.

In the end, Sheffield’s Joe Hirst and Rovers’s Kirk Netherton were the ones handed yellow cards and, typically, it was Featherstone who responded better, Ben Cockayne diving over for the eighth consecutive game following another exquisite chip from the impressive Finn.

Hepworth then scored following a marvellous returned kick from Saxton, who rounded off the destruction with a splendid 90-metre solo effort of his own, pushing Finn close for the Tom Bergin man-of-the-match award he won last year.

Finn finished with six goals to add to his two tries with Aston – as his new Ireland coach and a former scrum-half himself – admitting he was looking forward to working with him this autumn.

If Sheffield had had someone of similar ilk and composure yesterday, they may have made more of a fist of it.

Featherstone Rovers: Hardman; Cockayne, Smeaton, Worthington, Saxton; Kain, Finn; Tonks, Kaye, Dickens, Grayshon, Spears, Hepworth. Substitutes: Divorty, Dale, Bostock, Netherton.

Sheffield Eagles: Laulu-Tongagae; Finigan, Hanson, Taulapapa, Bergin; McDonald, Brown; Howieson, Henderson, Stringer, Szostak, Green, Hirst. Substitutes: Hepworth, Scott, Smith, Woodcock.

Referee: M Thomason (Warrington).