LONDON ROOSTERS staged a magnificent comeback to hold HALIFAX PANTHERS to a 40-40 draw in the opening round of the Wheelchair Super League season.
The fixture was a repeat of the previous weekend’s Challenge Cup final, won 46-24 by Halifax.
A feature of London’s route to that game was second-half fightbacks against both Wigan, in the quarter-finals, and Leeds in the semis.
This time they battled from 22 points down on the hour to level things with a final-minute score by the brilliant Joe Coyd, the last of his four-try haul.
But with the final action, Jason Owen missed the conversion from out wide – the Roosters’ only unsuccessful kick of the tie – as the spoils were shared.
Indeed both teams were left to rue a missed goal as player-coach Wayne Boardman failed to slot a penalty early in the second half for Halifax, who were outscored by seven tries to six.
After their early Jack Brown effort was cancelled out by a Jack Linden try and Coyd conversion, the Panthers surged in front with a Rob Hawkins double and Boardman try.
Boardman goaled all those efforts and also scored a penalty before Lewis King’s try on the stroke of half-time made it 12-26 via new kicker Owen.
Coyd narrowed the arrears on the resumption but Boardman improved a second Brown score, while Hawkins struck a penalty shortly after Boardman’s miss.
Hawkins also converted a Finlay O’Neill try, yet his side let the resulting 18-40 lead slip away in the last quarter.
After Owen began the fightback, Coyd scored three successive tries for a dramatic finish.
The other two fixtures weren’t such close affairs, with EDINBURGH GIANTS and SHEFFIELD EAGLES given rough rides on their Super League debuts.
Edinburgh were beaten 6-114 at home to champions LEEDS RHINOS while WIGAN WARRIORS accounted for Sheffield, 80-4.