They are not quite there yet, but the celebrations at full time here in east Hull told you everything you needed to know: the second part of an unprecedented treble is practically done and dusted.
It is to Hull FC’s immense credit and the work they have done under John Cartwright this year that they have undoubtedly closed the gap on their great rivals. Hull KR had to work for every inch of a high-octane and often ill-tempered derby win. But the result remains the same: as does the way we arrived at a sixth successive triumph in this game for the Robins.
In the more crucial moments, and in the fine margins this game often throws up, it was the team wearing red and white who were the stronger and, in this instance, the more clinical when it mattered. That has been the story of their season – and why they have almost two hands clasped on the League Leaders’ Shield.
From this point only a mathematical miracle will prevent Hull KR from finishing top of Super League for the first time. Having not won a trophy for 40 years before this season, the Robins are closing in on two in a matter of months after securing the Challenge Cup this summer. But the one they really want, to complete the treble, is now where their attention turns.
Having come up short in the grand final last season, Rovers are favourites to go one step further this year. They showed their credentials again here in a derby that was punctuated by big disciplinary moments and just enough flashes of brilliance in attack to hold their fiercest rivals at bay again.
“It was tough and we knew it would be,” Willie Peters, the Hull KR coach, said. “We made it tough for ourselves with completion but we knew what FC team would turn up. It wasn’t a great game to watch but we got there in the end. Overall, it was scrappy.” Scrappy is a fair assessment, especially when you consider there were only four points scored by the break.
They went the way of Rovers after a fine piece of play led to Noah Booth crossing in the corner, but for the rest of the half the Black and Whites did a good job of holding the Robins at arm’s length. Crucially though, they were unable to take advantage of any of their attacking positions at the other end and against Super League’s best defensive side, that is a recipe for disaster.
They continued to apply themselves well after the break and got the try they deserved through Tom Briscoe. But by the time he had crossed, so too had Jack Broadbent and the outstanding Jez Litten for the Robins to make it 14-4 with just minutes remaining. It was, in the end, mere consolation for a Hull side unable to find the winning solution against their rivals.
“I’m very frustrated, especially in the first half where we couldn’t seem to get out of our own end,” Cartwright said of his Hull side.
That second half was perhaps more notable for ill-discipline, with three players receiving yellow cards: and it could have been more. First, Hull’s Yusuf Aydin was sent to the sin-bin for a hip drop that could leave him in trouble with the RFL’s disciplinary panel.
Hull KR’s captain, Elliot Minchella, then followed him after a dangerous tackle on the Hull youngster Lewis Martin before Jordan Rapana was also sent to the sin-bin in the closing stages. FC prop Jack Ashworth may yet be cited too after attacking the head of Mikey Lewis, a moment which left Peters unimpressed.
“It’s a derby and things can happen, but some of the things out on the field were not part of the derby,” he said. His side rounded off the scoring late on with Tom Davies’s try which assured another derby win and one more step towards more history for a club fast becoming one of the game’s elite sides.
