Featherstone Rovers ready to rotate ahead of Betfred Championship play-offs

McDermott is keen to ensure he has as many players as possible to choose from for the big matches to come with Featherstone now assured of their top two finish following the 64-18 mauling of Workington Town at the Millennium Stadium.

"The first 40 minutes we were very, very good,” said the Rovers head coach after the game.

"The second 40 I purposely took all three of our middles off purposely. Locky came on and Dan Fleming and Sam Eseh and I took off Connor Jones. I wanted them to have a bit of a breather and I wanted to see the other four on the field together.

"It rattled a bit and it wasn’t good, but I’m not concerned at all about that period.

"Then when we put those fellas back on the field we got a grip of it again.

"We did a really good job in the first 40 and we had a massive emphasis on the start of the game and we continued that. I thought we would drop off after 15 or 20 minutes, but we didn’t.

"I’ll be rotating the squad over the next two games and others will get their chance to impress.”

Despite being rested for a while in the second half hooker Jones managed to score five tries in the game to celebrate signing a new contract to stay at the club for another year.

Craig Hall also ended with a personal haul of 24 points after scoring a try and kicking 10 goals.

Lock Lane seal top three finish in National Conference top flight

It was full-back Hall who opened the scoring, slicing through from close range after a dummy allowed him to find space.

Jones took Junior Moors’ offload to race over from 20 metres out for the second try before Hall and Tom Lineham combined to send Morgan Smith over.

Jones went on to collect his hat-trick in the first half, first after another Moors offload then when backing up well after Hall had made a scintillating 80 metre break.

Workington put their first points on the board through Jamie Doran, but Rovers led 36-6 at the break after Smith weaved his way through.

Initially the pattern remained the same in the second half with winger Lineham charging downfield after retrieving a kick deep in his own half.

But Town took advantage of the changes made in the home ranks as Joe Kirkup took Jordan Thompson’s pass to stroll over.

Gadwin Springer smashed his way over the line for Fev before their visitors scored again through Marcus O’Brien.

With all their big men back on the field Rovers finished the game stronger with Jones crossing for two more tries then the impressive Moors sending Ryley Jacks over.