So, let’s talk about last night. Good news first: Hull KR beat the London Broncos 40-16, jumping up to second place in the Super League in the process. On the surface, this could only be seen as a positive evening for me and my fellow Robins, and yet I can’t help but feeling like that score line flattered us somewhat, and that although we came away comfortable enough winners in the end, it didn’t always feel like that was going to be the case.

Let me first say before we go any further that this is not me just putting the game – and indeed the result – down to Rovers being lacklustre in periods, to do so would ignore the incredible effort put forth by the Broncos, whose game was more expansive and entertaining than Rovers’ was during periods of the game. It would be disrespectful of me to say that the reason they got back into the game at the start of the second half was simply down to us, because it wasn’t. London were incredibly hard-working and organised, and it wouldn’t shock me to see them add a few more victories to their tally before the end of the season.

That having been said, it is also undeniable that Rovers performance last night was below par. Especially for a side now fighting it out at the top of the table. I don’t know why this was, I wouldn’t like to think it was complacency, but it could well have been, but once we got ourselves into a 16-0 lead within twenty minutes, we took our foot off the throttle and nearly paid dearly for it, and not for the first time this season.

A similar theme was present in last week’s game against Leeds. On the balance of form, Rovers were once again heavy favourites, only to win in ugly fashion in the last ten minutes. It seems like they’re prone to making their own jobs more difficult in recent weeks, even looking at the Catalans game, granted Catalans are a fellow top six side, but on our home form leading up to the game, many would have said KR were favourites, only for them to concede ground early on and go into halftime 12-0 down, making a difficult game all the more challenging.

All of Rovers last three victories have been won ‘ugly’ in my opinion. On all three occasions we were up against struggling teams and given a head-start in many pundits mind, only to let them into the games far too easily and having to scrape wins by finer margins as a result.

There is a point to be made that previous Rovers teams would have most likely lost those three games, and so just winning them is an improvement, which is of course true, but when you look at how Warrington (who we play next) in particular are playing, the difference is thrown into stark relief. They’re winning pretty, we’re winning ugly, and eventually when you’re playing on the edge like that, your luck runs out.

I must concede after saying this that I shouldn’t be complaining too much. After all, we’re winning games and as I said earlier, are second in the league (which is a real “pinch me” moment for a Hull KR fan), and as was said on the Robin Pod (available wherever you get your podcasts) that I guested on last week, winning teams see out matches, no matter how difficult, and maybe that’s what we’re seeing now.

Admittedly though, I am a pessimist by nature. I’m not saying we had a right to go out and put sixty points past London, but when we went 18-0 up in the first twenty minutes, it certainly seemed like that was how it was going to go, and makes us letting them back into the game feel that much worse. We might be sitting pretty in second, but had we really kicked on in last night’s game, we could be at the top right now.

Truthfully though, all of these points are just ifs, how’s, buts and maybes, and it helps no-one. Perhaps we could have done a lot better against London, but the point remains we came away with the two points, just like we did against Leeds, and against Castleford. We do need to see a marked improvement when we head to the Halliwell Jones Stadium next week to take on the very much in-form Wolves, however, and we’ll take any win, no matter how ugly as we compete for the hubcap (League Leaders Shield) towards the business end of the season, we just need to get out of our own way and show the teams around us that we’re here to stay.

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