Can Robins follow up their win over Leeds?
KR NEED POINTS FROM AWAY DAYS
Hull KR negotiated a trip to Leeds Rhinos, who were hosting new coach Brad Arthur, but the test now is to succeed in a series of tricky away games against top sides.
Third-placed Rovers face second-placed Warrington in their next away game and the road trip after that is to take on Catalans Dragons at Magic Weekend. They are followed by away tests against St Helens and Wigan Warriors.
Rovers have been formidable even against the top clubs at home – having beaten Wigan and St Helens already at Craven Park. The next step for this club, as they strive to go from outsiders for glory to heavyweights, will be to find success against the top clubs away.
With the current top three being Wigan, Warrington and Rovers, the games involving those clubs against each other will be eagerly-anticipated. That is especially the case when KR are made to travel away to face the Wire and later Wigan, because of the current situation on the table.
On home soil, KR have the biggest positive points difference of all the Super League sides as they are on plus 145 from their nine home games (an average of plus 16 per match). Their home record of seven wins and two defeats is better than most of the other, aside from Catalans (eight wins, two losses) and Wigan (six wins, no losses).
Away from Craven Park, they are also strong, with six wins and three losses, only bettered by Wigan (eight wins, three losses) and Warrington (six wins and two losses).
Rovers’ points difference is plus 58 (an average of plus 6.4 per match).
The clear issue for Rovers, though, is winning away from Craven Park against top teams, which is something they are likely to have to do to be in the Grand Final, unless they finish second and secure a home playoff semi-final.
During 2023, they lost away at Wigan twice, away at Catalans twice and also were defeated on the road against Warrington and St Helens. In this 2024 campaign, they have been beaten away against Warrington and Catalans.
Questioned about the away form, KR coach Willie Peters said: “Most of the noise comes from when we go over to places like Warrington and Wigan, and there’s evidence to back it up.
“We didn’t win there last year so of course it’s going to come up again. We look at things performance-based, and for us, if we played against a Wigan or a Warrington and we hung in as much as we did against Leeds, we’ll still find a way to put ourselves in games. And that’s the key. It doesn’t matter where you play and who you play, you need to put yourselves in games by defending well and that’s what we did.”