Sunday saw a full set of Championship fixtures take place.
Hull Kingston Rovers remained unbeaten, Toulouse won again while Oldham and Sheffield picked up surprise wins. Here are the five things we learned on Sunday.
1. There’ll be no honeymoon period at Dewsbury
The post-Glenn Morrison era started at the weekend, but it didn’t have the desired effect on the field.
Dewsbury were comfortably defeated by Featherstone, despite taking the lead and playing against 12-men for around an hour after Richard Moore was sent-off Featherstone actually finished with 11 men after Luke Briscoe was also dismissed late on.
Whoever comes in has a big job on their hands.
2. London are struggling to cope with expectations
London suffered a shock defeat to Sheffield Eagles at the weekend, their third defeat in four outings.
The Broncos have hit a rough patch, and their current position is comparable to that of both Bradford and Halifax when they were looking to secure a spot in the Qualifiers for the second year running.
Both of those teams struggled to deal with expectations and having been backed to push for promotion this year, that looks unlikely at this stage. Then again, there’s a lot of rugby still to be played.
3. Inconsistency still an issue for Batley
It seems unfair to judge Batley on a defeat at runaway leaders Hull Kingston Rovers.
But the Bulldogs have struggled to put performances together on a regular basis since Matt Diskin joined the club, and that continued as they put in an underwhelming performance against Tim Sheens’ side.
Having scored 50 points last week, they conceded the same number of points against the Robins. They need to become more consistent to ensure they can make the top four again.
4. Toulouse are the real deal
Toulouse’s rise this year has been somewhat meteoric.
After being labelled as a team that can’t play away, Sylvain Houles’ side has now picked up back-to-back wins on the road against Halifax, Featherstone and Rochdale.
They look set to be Hull KR’s biggest threat this year.
5. Bradford aren’t out of trouble just yet
A string of league victories had some thinking Bradford would cruise away from the relegation zone.
Oldham had other ideas.
The Roughyeds picked up their second win of the season by defeating the Bulls, stalling some of the momentum that has been built.
They still look on course to survive, but this will have been a reality check.
