I wasn’t going to write anything about the final Hull derby of the season up until yesterday, to be perfectly honest with you all. I wanted to avoid the site becoming too Hull-centric in its content, what with most of our previous contributors being of either a black-and-white or red-and-white persuasion, but then Ian sent me his article looking at this past weekend’s game from his perspective as an FC fan, and it set me a challenge to respond in kind.

I’m sorry to disappoint anyone who has come here for a fiery rebuttal to Mr Judson’s words today, because I don’t have many. In what may be a harbinger of the apocalypse, I agree with Ian’s most salient points (especially the part about us being the top dogs of the city) in what may well be the first recorded instance of a KR fan agreeing with an FC fan on matters of rugby.

Firstly, to his point that the score flattered us. I’m not sure the score in itself was all that flattering in the context of how the game was going and recent results between the sides. I’d be more inclined to say we got lucky in the final third of the match, and almost threw away a solid eighteen-point lead within the space of five minutes. To then manage to fin by just fourteen points after going into half-time in such a strong position isn’t entirely indicative of a confident side playing at dull strength.

The turning point for Rovers, in my opinion, came when Niall Evalds was forced off through injury. It shows just how integral he is to our back line when his withdrawal causes such a collapse of our defensive strength, as well as subduing a lot of our attacking moves. That one injury caused a reshuffle in our ranks that seemingly derailed our game plan, as we went on to concede two quick-fire tries in the space of five minutes to make the game far more tense than it was shaping up to be.

After the first fifteen minutes, Rovers seemed like they would go on to put another big score on the board against their most bitter rivals. After fifteen minutes, with the scoreline at 0-18, we had scored over 100 unanswered points at the MKM over their last four trips over the River Hull. Certainly after watching Matty Storton charge through the Hull defence like a hot knife through butter, there was a feeling that Rovers would once again run away with it.

I don’t just want to put FC’s fight-back down to Rover’s capitulation either. In the interest of fairness, a lot of credit has to go to FC’s young squad, who seem to be improving week-on-week under Simon Grix’s tutelage. I have said in conversations with FC-supporting friends that their biggest bright spot of this season (perhaps their only bright spot, some might say) is their emerging crop of youngsters. They may only be getting as much game time as they have through necessity, but they’ve all impressed when given the chance to. They have a ways to go yet, but that goes without saying. It is to be hoped, if you’re a Black-and-White at least, that their development doesn’t get overshadowed by any incoming high-profile names, as it would be a shame to see such a talented crop of players relegated to reserve-grade action.

One subject that Ian didn’t mention in his article was the, shall we say, flaring of tensions that sprouted up during the game. The coming together of Elliot Minchella and Brad Fash in particular has come to be quite noteworthy in the days that have followed. That matter is now hopefully in the hands of the MRP, I don’t really have much to say on the matter on the evidence of the one photo I’ve seen, as it doesn’t really offer a lot of context in a vacuum. No doubt if Brad Fash has become -ahem – “overly-familiar” with Minchella’s private areas, then he would rightly face a lengthy spell on the side lines. Only time will tell.

On a positive note though, Rovers did manage to see the job through and rally towards the end of the game after a few false dawns of (correctly) disallowed tries, bringing home the two points and securing a clean sweep of our old enemies in the process. Whilst it wasn’t an overwhelmingly reassuring win, we can take solace in the fact that Rovers of old would have probably completely self-destructed (does anyone else remember throwing away a 20-0 lead to Hull FC, because I do), whereas we’ve grown into a team which keeps their heads, recovers and do what they have to do to win.

With that, another year of Hull derbies is now behind us, and Hull KR find themselves with the bragging rights. The gap between the two sides is narrowing, even if not in terms of league position then in terms of how a side is playing for each other. While I will enjoy gloating and mild teasing of Ian and my other FC-supporting friends over our current superiority on-field, I will admit to feeling a slight shift in the sands over the last few months, and even a little envy over some of their younger prospects. This game may have given us bragging rights again, but it also showed us how far we still have left to go to truly call ourselves a top team.

Written by Nathan Major-Kershaw (Site editor & Hull KR fan)

Find Ian’s article that inspired this one here