Pre-Season Friendlies Round-Up (13-14 January)

Results from this weekend’s action-packed pre-season friendlies are as follows, as we are now less than a month away from the Betfred Super League and AB Sundecks 1895 Cup competitions commencing:

Barrow Raiders 32-18 North Wales Crusaders

It was another pre-season win for the Raiders on Sunday, as they built on their victory from last week. 

North Wales Crusaders would capitalise early on, but Barrow’s brilliant attack would see them go 28-12 up at break and go on to secure another friendly win on home soil. 

Keighley Cougars 0-54 Castleford Tigers

A full strength Tigers side travelled to Cougar Park for Jake Webster’s Farewell Game, where they enjoyed a comfortable victory over Keighley in front of a bumper crowd, and honoured the Tigers legend Webster himself. 

Six new Tigers signings made their debuts, and it was one-sided scoring spree from the off with Castleford producing a ten try spectacle - giving themselves some much needed confidence heading into the 2024 Betfred Super League campaign. 

Bradford Bulls 34-32 Hull FC

Over at Odsal, it was a tale of two halves when a determined Bradford side took on a very youthful Hull FC. 

The Bulls led 28-6 at the break following a burst of five tries across the first half. A spirited set of Hull youngsters would go on to make an impressive comeback, but it would be too little too late, as the final result would come down to conversions - with both teams scoring six tries a piece on the day. 

With Bradford’s confidence continuing to grow as they ran out 34-32 winners, they will now be gearing up for their next Super League test against Leeds Rhinos in two weeks’ time. This will be the Bulls' fourth pre-season friendly, as they look to be as ready as possible and fully test their squad’s abilities, before they play their first AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Group fixture, the following week. 

Featherstone Rovers 28-14 Dewsbury Rams 

Featherstone have come through their pre-season strong with two out of two wins when they defeated Dewsbury on Sunday and Bradford last weekend - as they head into the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup Group Stage fixtures. 

It was also another vital 80 minutes of rugby league for the Rams, as their efforts were clear to see. Dale Ferguson’s side could never get themselves on the right side of the score-line however, but heading in the final quarter, the Rams managed to claw the score line back to 16-14. 

This was before three successive and late Rovers tries, meaning Featherstone would be the ones who would come out on top. 

Widnes Vikings 22-22 Whitehaven RLFC 

It was an even contest over at the DCBL Stadium for Jack Owens’ testimonial fixture, where this entertaining pre-season friendly finished in a dramatic draw. 

Whitehaven led 12-0 at the start of the match and this continued when Gorley’s men were looking like the obvious winners at 22-14 with two minutes remaining. But they were unable to hold off a Vikings fightback in the dying moments of the game and two quick fire tries and a conversion on the hooter from the hosts would make it finish all square in this pre-season fixture. 

There are more pre-season fixtures taking place this weekend and fans can find all the relevant information and kick-off times over in the Rugby League Match Centre.