5 WEEKS THAT WILL DEFINE HULL KINGSTON ROVER’S 2015 SEASON

Leading into the Magic Weekend Hull Kingston Rovers lie 10^th in the Super League table – not great you might think – not after being in the top 5 after an Easter weekend double over Hull FC and Huddersfield Giants – the first time we have achieved an Easter double since returning to the top league in 2007.

It’s fair to say that Rovers form since that hard fought win over the Giants on Easter Monday has not been great – we have lost 4 of our 5 league games since that win to plunge down to 10^th place, but it should be pointed that those 4 losses were all away from home against teams pushing for top 6 places.

There is no doubt that Rovers away form this season has been disappointing though – a solitary win at fierce rivals Hull FC on Easter Thursday is our sole triumph away from the KC Lightstream Stadium in the Super League. 

It has not been the easiest run of fixtures and those 4 away defeats, at Castleford Tigers, Catalans Dragons, Wigan Warriors and Leeds Rhinos all came at venues we tend to struggle and any points gained would probably have been seen as a bonus.  

The performances have been a mixed bag – we rolled over at Castleford and were totally embarrassed in the 60-0 defeat at Wigan although we should have won at Catalans and performed well against Leeds last Friday with a depleted side.

Rovers have shown they can win away from home though.

We won at former Super League rivals Bradford Bulls in the 5^th round of the Challenge Cup, although the 50-30 victory was a real struggle until the last 20 minutes and, of course, 2 weeks after the 60-0 hammering at the DW Stadium we took the Warriors on at the Leigh Sports Village in the Challenge Cup 6^th round and wiped the smirks off their faces with a brilliant 16-12 victory to advance to the quarters finals of the Cup and earn a home tie with Catalans Dragons,  a team we defeated 50-20 at home earlier in the season and who generally struggle away from home as much as we have in 2015.

In amongst that run of away games we have had only one home game since Easter Monday and we took Wakefield Trinity Wildcats to the cleaners winning 54-6.

So, heading in to the Magic Weekend we are not in the position we would like to be – but all is not doom and gloom, we are only 1 point from 8^th and 4 points from 5^th and have a game in hand on most teams above us.

We have played some fantastic rugby league this year spearheaded by our captain Terry Campese – a man who has become a talismanic figure in such a short space of time and he is backed up by the likes of Albert Kelly, Ken Sio, Kieran Dixon, a rejuvenated Kris Welham, Ben Cockayne and Josh Mantellato in the backs with Adam Walker, Shaun Lunt, James Green, Kevin Larroyer, James Donaldson, Graeme Horne and the unheralded Maurice Blair and John Boudebza laying the foundations in the forwards.

The KC Lightstream Stadium has become something of a fortress and we have defeated Wigan, Catalans, St. Helens, Huddersfield and Wakefield on our home turf after narrowly losing out to the Leeds Rhinos on the opening day.

I was a major critic of coach Chris Chester towards the end of last season on the back of some poor results and especially after our woeful performance at the KC Stadium last July, and just after half time of the Wigan Warriors game on the 1^st March, when we trailed by 14 points having lost our opening 2 fixtures (including an awful performance at Wakefield the week before), I was shaking my head and thinking about who our new coach could be - but then something wonderful happened.

Terry Campese - Talismanic figure.

Campese took the game by the scruff of the neck and hauled us to a 22-20 win and the scenes at the end were fantastic with the players going round the edge of the pitch and hi-fiving the fans and having their photographs taken with their supporters – you would have thought that we had qualified for the Grand Final instead of having claimed our first league win of the year.

It seemed to galvanise everybody – coaching staff, players and supporters - and whilst things have by no means been perfect since then, we have looked like a dangerous team with the ball in hand and have improved our defensive performances (apart from the Wigan away league game when an U10s side would have ran through us!!!)

Hull Kingston Rovers now head into a season defining period of 5 very important weeks.

We play our local rivals Hull FC at the Magic Weekend on Saturday afternoon in Newcastle – a weekend where we always seem to perform well more often than not having won 6 of our 8 games at Magic and 5 out of 6 against our old rivals (does anyone remember Ganson’s last minute howler when he ‘’tracked the wrong player’’ which cost us our only Magic defeat to the black and whites????) and then we head into 3 consecutive home league fixtures against Castleford Tigers , Widnes Vikings and Warrington Wolves before the month of June closes out with the Challenge Cup quarter final tie at home to Catalans Dragons.

Five very important season defining weekends.

Win those 5 games, create some momentum and we could be nailing on a Super League spot for 2016 that comes with finishing in the top 8 and also booking ourselves a place in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup for the first time since 2006 – lose 3 or 4 of those and it could be a struggle to make the 8 and another missed chance at glory.

It has to be pointed out that last season we lost all of our homes league games against the Tigers, Vikings, Wolves and Dragons so I am not taking anything for granted but I certainly believe that we are a better and more together team now.

Tony Puletua - loan signing.

However, we are really struggling with injuries at the moment and have had to bring in forwards James Greenwood from Wigan Warriors and Tony Puletua from Salford Red Devils on loan as we currently have Adam Walker, Dane Tilse, Graeme Horne, Greg Burke, Shaun Lunt and Mitch Allgood on the sidelines due to injury.

Greenwood is a good young player and showed up well on debut at Leeds last week and I have always been a fan of Puletua – my real concern is that he has not played for Salford this season due to a contract dispute and is 35 years old although his big game experience will be vital and he will want to finish his career on a high after the disappointment of his time at the Red Devils.

Added to the 6 forwards missing we are also without three quarters Liam Salter and Darrel Goulding and star half back Albert Kelly has missed the last couple of games with a hamstring injury – although Maurice Blair has stood in brilliantly in the halves, particularly against Wigan in the Challenge Cup.

Top try scorer Ken Sio went off with concussion against Leeds last week and I am hoping and praying that he will be fit to take his place in the team this weekend.

As you can see, the next 5 weeks will make or break our season and we are in the middle of an injury crisis to boot.

Thankfully, we have recalled Jordan Cox from his loan spell at Huddersfield Giants and it is good to see the big Academy graduate back in the red and white of his home town club and we have also bloodied youngsters Sonny Esslemont and Steven Holker and have Aaron Ollett back fit and raring to go in his first Hull derby at the weekend.

These will be a challenging few weeks but if we can get over the Hull FC hurdle on Saturday afternoon then I think we will be set up nicely for 4 huge home fixtures that may lead us into the top 8 and further down the road to a first Challenge Cup final appearance since 1986 or see us fighting for Super League survival with the likes of Leigh Centurions, Bradford Bulls and Wakefield Trinity Wildcats amongst others and left dreaming of a Wembley appearance for another 12 months at least.

We all saw what Castleford did last season by coming from nowhere to nearly take out both the League Leaders Shield and the Challenge Cup before finishing 4^th after a last day defeat and losing out to the Rhinos at Wembley.

Nothing is impossible – we dare to dream and if the players are together and play at the top of their game and listen to and follow the maestro Campese then we could see you at Wembley on August 29^th and confirm our position in Super League for 2016.

Can you imagine though if the £1 million pound game between the teams that finish 4^th and 5^th in the middle 8s is between Hull KR and Hull FC?? The winner stays in Super League and the vanquished are relegated to the Championship – unlikely I know – but anything is possible!!

It will be an interesting, painful, euphoric, draining, mesmeric, exciting, infuriating few weeks – this is Rugby League!!!