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With the nights drawing in and the temperatures starting to drop, it is already starting to feel like playoff season is just around the corner in Super League. But this match only reinforced it further as two sides with aspirations of reaching the Grand Final in October played out an absorbing dress-rehearsal for what is to come over the next six weeks.
In the end, it was Hull KR who secured victory – and deservedly so. Willie Peters’ side now know that victory next week will clinch a first League Leaders’ Shield in Super League history for the Robins, as well as leg two of what could be a historic treble. Their opponents next Sunday? Arch rivals Hull FC.
They certainly had to work hard for their latest victory in a meeting of Super League’s two best defensive sides. For large periods it looked as though the whole 80 minutes would pass without a try being scored. However, when one finally came it proved crucial, as Joe Burgess’s finish secured the points for Hull KR.
Having been badly beaten at Leeds last weekend, this was the kind of response you would expect from a side that have been so dominant all season. They took their moments when they arrived, and were brilliant without the ball to move one step closer to another piece of history, having won the Challenge Cup for the first time in 45 years earlier this summer.
“It was a good game. It had a semi-finals feel and it got a bit edgy at the end, but it was a good game,” Peters said. He was not wrong; this was a mesmerising encounter, in which both teams could muster up only a solitary penalty apiece by half-time as defences dominated.
Both teams even survived 10 minutes without a player, as Rhyse Martin was sin-binned for Hull KR before George Delaney followed suit for the Saints. Crucially though, Martin’s tackle on Morgan Knowles after seven minutes ended the England international’s evening, and left the visitors without their most influential player for the majority of the night.
Saints have shown huge improvement since they were hammered here earlier in the season. A run of nine wins in 10 meant they could have gone second with a win, but now by the end of the weekend, they could be fifth. They have taken steps forward, but this showed they are still a fraction behind the very best sides.
“The way we started the second half was poor,” their coach, Paul Wellens, said. “When you come here, it’s often an attritional battle and the way we started that second half, we were in trouble early.”
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Penalties from Martin and Mark Percival left it finely poised at 2-2 at the break, before the boot of Martin came into play again after the restart. As Wellens admitted, Saints’ discipline cost them in the second half. They were still holding Rovers’ attack out quite comfortably but three separate penalties gave Martin easy opportunities to open up a six-point lead. On a night when defences were firmly on top, that felt crucial.
So too did Mikey Lewis’ pinpoint 40-20 which gave the Robins a chance to strike, and they finally opened the Saints up when Burgess finished a wonderful move in the corner to make it 12-2. To the visitors’ credit, they set up a grandstand finale when Deon Cross touched down in the corner, but they ran out of time.
It means that while there are unanswered questions over this St Helens side’s ability to go the distance, Rovers are now just 80 minutes away from another piece of silverware.
