YORK Knights secured fourth place in the Betfred Championship, and a home Play-off Eliminator, with a breathless 16-6 victory against Featherstone Rovers at the LNER Community Stadium.
The match was billed as a shootout between the sides for the final play-off place, but in a remarkable turn of events, Sheffield Eagles’ shock defeat at relegated Dewsbury Rams has seen both make the top six.
York will now host fifth-placed Widnes Vikings next Saturday for a place in the Play-off Semi-Finals.
Featherstone started the better of the two sides, and it looked like being a long afternoon for the Knights when Josh Hardcastle broke through to open the scoring with just five minutes on the clock.
The visitors came close again on the quarter hour, but after Jesse Dee had missed Thomas Lacans’ kick, Gareth Gale was ruled to have been offside as he touched down the loose ball.
Instead, the Knights hit back three minutes later, captain Liam Harris jinking his way through to score just to the right of the posts to level the scores.
York then saw a try ruled out, having been penalised for offside as Brenden Santi touched down Harris’ kick.
But the hosts crucially scored again four minutes before the break, Joe Brown’s sublime acrobatic effort handing them a 10-6 half time lead.
The second half proved to be one of intense defending, and with both sides tackling hard, the majority was played without the tryline being troubled.
Featherstone saw another effort chalked off, with Gale knocking on across the line after Tom Lineham had dropped Lacans’ chip.
However, it was again Harris who found some magic for the Knights, breaking through from the 30-metre line and twice rounding Caleb Aekins as he sealed victory with eight minutes left to play.
York’s win though did not come without cost, with prop Jack Martin taken off with a rib injury early on and makeshift full-back Nikau Williams suffering a broken nose.
MATCH RECAP: York Knights 16-6 Featherstone Rovers
Mark Applegarth made two changes from last weekend’s win at Sheffield, with Martin preferred to Ronan Michael at prop and Jesse Dee making his first start since early June in the second row.
Jacob Gannon was not included in the squad, with Jack Teanby, Bailey Antrobus and Brad Ward among those to also miss out amid their new-found selection headache.
Featherstone themselves named a strong line-up including ex-Knights Ben Reynolds, Greg Minikin and Brad Day, as James Ford looked to make a winning return to his former club.
The visitors started the better of the sides, finding themselves in front with just five minutes on the clock after a series of Knights errors.
Ata Hingano’s 40/20 attempt bounced dead for a 20-metre restart, and things worsened still when Reynolds was caught high 20 metres from the line.
The hosts were at sixes and sevens from the resultant penalty, their defence breached all too easily by Hardcastle, who crashed onto Lacans’ short pass and across into the right corner.
Reynolds’ conversion handed Rovers a six-point lead inside as many minutes.
York had similarly fallen behind on their way to a historic 34-24 victory at the Millennium Stadium in June but showed little by way of a quick response.
Reynolds sent two near-identical end-of-set kicks over the touchline, whilst at the other end, Aekins did well to keep Harris’ 40/20 attempt in the field of play.
Williams then fumbled a Hingano offload, and though Petro Nakubuwai muscled his way across the whitewash, he was held up.
Harris conceded the game’s first drop-out from the next tackle, with Martin then withdrawn holding his ribs.
York though were handed a let-off, Gale ruled offside as he looked to profit from Dee’s hesitancy towards Lacans’ cross-field chip.
However, just three minutes later, the hosts were on level terms.
The ball found its way to Harris on the 10-metre line, who jinked left, and then right, as he powered his way through a tackle and across just to the right of the posts.
Williams could not miss from in front of the sticks, taking the score to six apiece.
A loose Rovers pass looked to have opened the door for York to fire themselves in front, but Dee was the next to pass up an opportunity, dropping the ball as he surged through a gap.
The Knights came even closer on the half hour after Harris’ high hanging kick had split Aekins and Wynne, but Santi was ruled to have strayed offside before scoring beneath the posts.
But it wasn’t long before the hosts had the game turned on its head.
After Jordan Thompson had been brought down narrowly short, Harris found Brown with an outstanding cut-out pass, the winger somehow managing to find the space to touch down into the right corner without being bundled into touch.
Williams could not convert from the touchline, but his side still held a 10-6 half time lead.
That though set the tone for an enthralling second half in which defences were on top and the game’s intensity firmly kicked up a notch.
Lacans was left worse for wear after he had come racing in on Williams, and the makeshift full-back was the victim of another stinging tackle two minutes later from Gadwin Spinger.
York saw another chance pass them by in the 48th minute, Hingano breaking through the Featherstone defence before sending a grubber into the path of Joe Law, but the ball bounced up off the Wakefield loanee’s shin and away to safety.
Momentum though was with the visitors, who saw another Gale effort chalked off for a knock-on before Brown’s try-saving tackle stopped Day, who had raced clear on the left edge.
Rovers thrice won drop-outs in the 10 minutes that followed as York struggled to get out of their own half, but were denied on each occasion by the home defence.
A huge hit on Wellington Albert dislodged the ball from the interchange’s grasp, and Featherstone were dealt another blow from the next set, hooker Connor Jones sent for a head injury assessment after his attempted tackle on Ukuma Ta’ai.
But a James Lockwood knock-on presented York with the field position to close out the contest with eight minutes left to play.
Featherstone went short from the resultant kick-off but the Knights read it superbly, then winning a penalty for a high tackle on Cunningham.
Harris’ kick on the last flew into Featherstone hands, but Hardcastle knocked-on with a minute left to play, squandering what proved to be his side’s final chance.
YORK KNIGHTS: Williams, Brown, Field, Law, Lineham, Hingano, Harris, Martin, Jubb, Ta’ai, Dee, Bailey, Thompson.
INTERCHANGES: Santi, Michael, Daley, Cunningham
TRIES: Harris (18, 72), Brown (36)
GOALS: Williams 2/3
FEATHERSTONE ROVERS: Aekins, Gale, Hardcastle, Minikin, Wynne, Reynolds, Lacans, Lockwood, Jones, Nakubuwai, Day, Bussey, Beckett.
INTERCHANGES: Springe, Albert, Arnold, Eden
TRIES: Hardcastle (5)
GOALS: Reynolds 1/1
POINTS SEQUENCE: 0-4, 0-6, 4-6, 6-6, 10-6, 14-6, 16-6
HALF TIME: 10-6
YORK’S STAR MAN: Liam Harris. Two tries for the Knights’ captain either side of Joe Brown’s effort to take the game away from Featherstone. A mention too to Josh Daley, who impressed from the bench.
REFEREE: Aaron Moore
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