It has not been a good few months for Fenton Rogers, but the on-loan Bulls prop received a major boost on Wednesday night.
In May, Rogers was found guilty of drink-driving following an incident in Saddleworth on Good Friday.
He was handed a 17-month driving ban and fined £576, and his year looked set to get worse when he was charged with Grade F Verbal Abuse in Bradford’s Betfred Championship win over Doncaster two weeks ago.
The Huddersfield youngster was facing an eye-watering six game ban, but he has been found not guilty, and is therefore free to play, starting tomorrow in a top-of-the-table clash in Toulouse.
Bulls head coach Eamon O’Carroll said: “It’s a mental challenge for Fenton, having that allegation brought up, but I felt he handled it really well.
“We were confident we’d get him off, so it was just about getting his preparation right.
“We were sure that he didn’t have a case to answer to us, which is what came to fruition.
“He’ll just have to deal with that and put it behind him and focus on selection.”
Asked if he felt it was unfair Rogers had to go through that agonising waiting game, only to find out he had no case to answer to, O’Carroll said: “Look, I had the confidence in Fenton and know what sort of human being he is, so we weren’t worried for one minute.
“We trust Fenton and we trust the people around him that were witnesses to the incident.
“I thought Nobby (Brian Noble) did a great job in leading our defence of him because we were confident we’d get him off.
“We don’t want to hear things like that in the game, because we’re an all-inclusive club and our captain (Michael Lawrence) head up the RFL’s Inclusion and Diversity Board.
“We’re all on board for stamping that out, there’s no place for it in the game, but at the end of the day, Fenton was found innocent so we move on.”
Rogers’ Huddersfield team-mate Aidan McGowan has been recalled by his parent club this week for their Super League clash against Warrington tonight.
On McGowan, O’Carroll said: “When you make the deal to bring someone in on loan, you have to be prepared for the fact you might lose them.
“And I have the attitude that I hope we do, as long as they go back to play.
“If he does debut for Huddersfield this week, we’ll be happy for Aidan and proud of him, while feeling like we’ll have played a part in helping develop him to get his Super League opportunity.
“He’s done a great job for us and Huddersfield have been fantastic in allowing some of their players to come to us when we’ve needed them.
“We’re disappointed to lose someone of Aidan’s calibre, but if it means he goes and plays Super League then I’m really happy for him and all of us will be watching the game in France if he does make the squad.”
O’Carroll added: “We don’t know whether he’ll come back here, we’ll have to see how that situation progresses.
“At this moment in time he’s back with them, and if he’s not playing there, I’m sure we’ll see him again, but if he is, then obviously he won’t be with us.”
Bulls did cope well without McGowan against Whitehaven and Doncaster last month, the only two matches the full back had previously missed this season.
Those victories were part of an unbeaten June, which saw Bulls win all four of their games, scoring at least 36 points in each.
O’Carroll had told the T&A beforehand just how important that “banana-skin” spell was, and now that test has been passed with flying colours, he said: “I’m happy, because we obviously looked at that block and broke it down.
“I’m really pleased we’ve come through it with the job done, and it’s important we recognise that and are happy about that.
“But we’re now solely focused on the next block of games ahead of us.”
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