Mark Applegarth hails York Knights' character against Featherstone

York fell behind to Josh Hardcastle’s fifth-minute effort, but, led by a Man of the Match performance from captain Liam Harris, turned the game on its head to seal fourth place and a home play-off against Widnes Vikings next Saturday.

Completing a historic double over Rovers, the Knights earned their highest finish since 2019, with Applegarth having taken the club from the relegation zone to one of the division’s most fancied play-off contenders during his three months at the helm.

“It was a bit nervy, wasn’t it!” the head coach laughed.

“But I thought that the character that the lads have shown out there was absolutely outstanding.

“It wasn’t our prettiest performance, but how we went about our defending – I think we had two sets in their 20, which shows you how hard we’ve had to defend there.

“I’m really proud of them, and you could see how much it meant to everybody.

“It wasn’t pretty as a performance, but all that matters at this time of the year is grinding those two points out, so I’m really happy we’ve secured that home play-off.

“We’ll rest up, and then Widnes at home we’ll move our attention to next week.”

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Featherstone came out of the blocks firing, and it was little surprise that they took an early lead.

After former Knight Ben Reynolds had been tackled high, half-back partner Thomas Lacans sent a bullet pass to Hardcastle, who found it all too easy to score into the right corner.

And they could have been further in front on the quarter hour, with Petro Nakubawai held up before Gareth Gale appeared to have grounded Lacans’ chip, only to have been ruled offside in the build-up.

“I think it was more nerves than anything,” Applegarth explained of his side’s slow start.

“As much as you try and keep it cool and calm throughout the week, it’s the first time that a lot of our players have been involved in games with that sort of magnitude.

“I think you just saw a bit of nerves, but I think we’ll be a lot better for that, they know what to expect now.

“I thought Featherstone started massive, they showed exactly where they were going to come.

“We came up with a couple of unforced errors, but we spoke pre-game about how our defence would win us the game, and that’s proved to be the case hasn’t it?”

Captain Liam Harris orchestrated the Knights' comeback, scoring twice and setting up Joe Brown's acrobatic stunner. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) York crucially hit back midway through the half, Harris jinking his way through the Featherstone defence and crashing over next to the posts, with Nikau Williams levelling proceedings from the tee.

Jesse Dee dropped the ball as he surged through a gap and across the line, with Brenden Santi then seeing a try chalked off, having strayed offside from Harris’ high hanging kick.

But the Knights went into half time in front, Harris throwing a sublime cut-out pass to top scorer Joe Brown, who provided an equally stunning diving finish into the right corner.

Whilst the first half had been at times free flowing, the second was anything but. Defences were on top, tough tackles flew in from both teams, and the intensity firmly ramped up.

It was again Featherstone who came out brightly, forcing Hingano into a knock-on deep within his own half, but they could find no way through.

But the best early chance of the half fell to the Knights, with Joe Law unlucky to see Hingano’s grubber bounce off his shin and away to safety as he seemed set to score.

Momentum then swung back the way of the visitors, with Gale seeing a second effort chalked off for a knock-on before Brown denied Brad Day after Reynolds had played him into space on the left edge.

A trio of goal-line drop-outs followed for Featherstone, but they could not capitalise and instead were dealt a hammer blow with eight minutes remaining.

Harris broke through the visitors’ defence on the 30-metre line before twice rounding Caleb Aekins as he crashed over beneath the posts to put the game out of reach.

Nonetheless, Featherstone have claimed the final play-off place, pipping Sheffield Eagles after their shock defeat at relegated Dewsbury Rams.

Harris and Applegarth celebrate at full time. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography) “That’s the sort of rugby you want to be playing at this time of year, where it’s two very good teams going at each other,” Applegarth admitted. “It’s just who’s going to buckle first.

“Luckily for us, we came out on the right side of that today,

“But credit to Featherstone too, they threw everything they had at us, especially in that first half, and we had to hang on in defence.

“It was a cracking advert for Championship rugby and exactly what the neutral fan wants.

“Featherstone are a well-coached team and they’ll have been looking at our previous games and seeing where they could exploit us.

“They definitely tested us in the areas that we knew the traffic would be coming. But at the same time, I’ve got to give credit to our lads how they adapted on the go.

“There’s a certain thing in rugby that you can’t really quantify and that’s character and spirit. How some of the lads stepped up and then saw that game through was just absolutely outstanding.

“I think the overriding word for me is just proud.”