Seventh win on trot for power Rangers
broken hand, returning in place of the injured Sam Rochford (leg), Craig Williams replacing Pogson in the halves, Owen Restall making his home debut in the left centre.
Dan Farrand started at lock, Eichner moving in the back row in place of the injured Billy Rogers (cheekbone), and Johnathan Tinker and Luke Roberts returning to the replacements bench.
A minutes silence was superbly respected by the attending crowd held in respect of long standing supporter Philip Beever who sadly and suddenly passed away the previous weekend.
It only took six minutes for the hosts to open the scoring.
Following strong surges from front rower Mikey Holmes and Andy Boothroyd, Eichner received the ball for a simple score and Harrop converted, but he missed the next attempt as Ansell scored his first try on nine minutes.
The Knights had kicked the restart out on the full following the opening try, and after Underbank had set up the position Hirst, Harrop and Chatterton linked superbly to send Ansell racing in.
The visitors were making far too many handling errors and conceding too many penalties against a intense and harrying Underbank D with Chad Bain, Casey Clark and Eichner to the fore, and it was no surprise following one of the penalties that Eichner grabbed his second with just 13 minutes on the clock after Hirst had scythed through the Knights defensive line and provided the final pass for Eichner to race over untouched.
Harrop’s conversion attempt the right upright and Rangers led 14-0 in the opening quarter of the game.
Then from a Knights’ spilled ball on 20 minutes Chatterton was next on the scoresheet as he ran a great line at pace onto a short pass from Clark, burst through two would be tackles and raced 30 metres to cross the stripe.
Harrop kicked the simple conversion, as he did on 31 and 34 minutes as the game was sealed by two individual pieces of brilliance.
Firstly with Normanton attacking the Underbank line and looking threatening Chatterton swooped onto a looping pass to gallop 80 metres and then following a scrum Ansell got on the outside of the Knights’ defence and sprinted 90 metres for a great score.
The three converted scores made the half time score 32-0 and essentially the game was won.
The second half was a disappointment for the home fans as Rangers conceded far too many penalties and therefore plenty of field position allowing the Knights to post four consolation tries of their own through Clark Thompson (2), Connor Taylor and Lee Hammond with Taylor adding two conversions.
Underbank played most of the second period in their own half, but did break away through Ansell who picked up at the play the ball, beat five defenders on a mazy run to put himself clear and then outpaced the cover defence for his treble completing try.
Harrop added the extras to give a final score of 38-20.
The second half was largely forgettable, but it was lit up by a sparkling score by the speedster Ansell, who duly was awarded The Rose & Crown, Thurstonland Players’ Player of the Match and Eichner was selected as the Bengal Spice, Man of the Match. UNDERBANK RANGERS .................... Hunslet Club Parkside ...................... Normanton Knights ........................... Milford Marlins ...................................... Lock Lane ................................................. York Acorn ............................................... Hunslet Warriors ................................. Hull Dockers ........................................... Shaw Cross Sharks ............................ Blackbrook .............................................. Ince Rose Bridge ................................. Featherstone Lions ............................ HUDDERSFIELD Giants half back Danny Brough is facing a possible five-match ban.
The Scotland international has been cited for Grade B dangerous contact on Jake Webster after 33 minutes of the home defeat by Castleford Tigers.
And he’s also been charged with a Grade C dangerous contact on Grant Millington after 73 minutes – an offence for which he was sin-binned.
They carry possible two and three-match bans respectively.
Brough has escaped punishment on another charge of making a low tackle on an opponent in the 13th minute.
Should Brough be suspended it will leave Giants coach Rick Stone stretched for cover.
Lee Gaskell is out injured and centre Sam Wood has been playing in the halves with Ryan Brierley now departed to Toronto.
The Giants next match is against Catalans Dragons at Magic Weekend on Sunday, May 21, followed by a trip to Wakefield Trinity on Friday, May 26.
Dale Ferguson has received a caution from the Match Review Panel for tripping Greg Eden. SIX uncapped players will be among a group of 20 attending an England RU training camp focusing on strength and conditioning in the week ahead.
Teenage twins Ben and Tom Curry will be put through their paces at the Lensbury Hotel in Teddington from today to Thursday, along with Sale teammates Sam James and Denny Solomona and the Harlequins duo of Will Collier and Joe Marchant. Wing Solomona is involved for the first time with England following his conversion from rugby league.
Joining the untried group will be familiar names including Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown, George Ford and Danny Care.
Forwards - R Buchanan (Harlequins), W Collier (Harlequins), B Curry (Sale), T Curry (Sale), T Ellis (Bath), C Ewels (Bath), R Harrison (Sale), C Robshaw (Harlequins), W Spencer (Worcester); Backs - M Brown (Harlequins), D Care (Harlequins), G Ford (Bath), M Haley (Sale), P Humphreys (Worcester), S James (Sale), J Marchant (Harlequins), R Mills (Worcester), D Solomona (Sale), J Woodward (Bristol), M Yarde (Harlequins).