4 hours ago
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Hull KR may well be rugby league’s newly crowned world champions but on the biggest stage the sport can provide its superstar athletes, it was Leeds Rhinos who produced their very best in Las Vegas to absolutely dismantle the Super League champions in spectacular fashion.
A week on from stunning NRL premiers Brisbane Broncos to win the World Club Challenge for the first time, the Robins headed Stateside keen to put on another show to further enhance their burgeoning reputation as one of rugby league’s great sides. But the Super League champions were ultimately humbled by one of their main title rivals.
Whether Rovers were fatigued from their exploits against the Broncos last week is a discussion for another day. But whatever the reason, there is no doubting they were second best here against a Leeds side fast becoming their kryptonite. Last year, the Rhinos won two of the three meetings between the teams: no other side beat Hull KR more than once.
And now already in 2026, Leeds have flexed their muscle against Super League’s best side to suggest it may well be their turn to capture silverware this season. It was almost impossible to pick out a star performer given the nature of almost their entire side.
The damage was done throughout a quite sensational first half in which Leeds were essentially faultless, and in which the star was veteran winger Maika Sivo. The Parramatta Eels great missed the whole of 2025 with a serious knee injury but he is clearly intent on making up for lost time, with six tries in his first two games this year: including four here.
Sivo scored the opening two in this contest to put the Rhinos into an early lead, the second was a monstrous show of strength to bat aside two Hull KR defenders and score with only an inch of space. By half-time, Leeds had scored a further three times courtesy of Keenan Palasia, Brodie Croft and Ryan Hall.
That Hall try came after Sivo produced an unbelievable catch close to his own line before racing downfield. While he was halted by a scrambling Hull KR defence, the Rhinos – inspired by the unbelievable Jake Connor at half-back – worked the ball to the opposite flank to allow Hall to score his 350th career try.
Leading 28-0 at the interval, there was never really any danger of a comeback from the champions. Leeds firmly extinguished that notion ten minutes after the restart when Croft scored his second before more off-the-cuff attack from the Rhinos led to Sivo completing his first-hat-trick.
There was temporary respite for the Robins, who avoided the humiliation of being nilled on a stage as big as this when Joe Burgess scored a consolation. But Sivo soon recaptured the spotlight with another bulldozing run for his fourth before a late brace from Cooper Jenkins brought up the 50-point mark: the first time since 2023 that Hull KR have conceded so many.
As for the Robins, they had the eyes of the rugby league world on them after their heroics last week against the Broncos, but they now head to Huddersfield next week still without a first league win in 2026. That game, incidentally, is a meeting of Super League’s last two winless sides this season, with this the worst start to a season from a defending champion in a decade.
But this occasion and this particular grand stage, for once given their recent history, did not belong to Hull KR. This was Leeds’ moment: and it was some statement about how they could be the next big force in Super League.
