We're the Greatest Kingston Rovers and we're off to Wembley!!!

24 hours before our first Challenge Cup semi final for 9 years I was sat under a canopy in the bar of my hotel sheltering from 45 degree temperatures, following an early morning swim in the gorgeous pool, in the South West Turkish resort of Marmaris watching England finish off the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston whilst waiting for the coach transfer to Dalaman Airport for a late night flight to Leeds Bradford Airport.

We landed at Leeds Bradford at 0130hrs on Saturday morning and the first thing I felt was rain – welcome back to the UK – we arrived home in Hull shortly before 4 a.m.

Mcdonald's Breakfast

After just 4 ½ hours sleep me and 2 of my sons, Kelland and Kingsley, headed back west to Leeds (after a McDonald's breakfast) to watch the mighty Hull Kingston Rovers take on Warrington Wolves for the right to play in the Challenge Cup Final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 29th August - exactly 120 years to the day since the birth of the game in the George Hotel in Huddersfield.

Rovers have not played in a Challenge Cup final since losing to Castleford in 1986, one of 3 Cup Final appearances in the 1980's - all of which I attended, whilst Warrington have won 3 Challenge Cup finals in the last 6 years and have also appeared in 2 Grand Finals since Tony Smith took charge in 2009 and turned them into winners after years of under-performing.

2015 has been an inconsistent season for both teams, more surprisingly for the Wolves than Rovers who have had a large number of new signings come in throughout the season and failed to qualify for the top 8 whereas I expected the Wolves to take out the Grand Final this year but they have struggled to string wins together and have really struggled to have a settled half back partnership throughout the year. They finished 6th after 23 rounds and will find it hard to break into the top 4 after the next 7 rounds of fixtures which will determine who plays for the right to play in the Grand Final in October.

When the semi-final draw was made, the vast majority of Hull KR fans were delighted with drawing Warrington - we had played well in the quarter final defeat of Catalans and had comfortably beaten the Wolves in the League just a couple of weeks earlier so felt confident that if we finished the season well, we had a real chance to win the semi-final.

Two days after the semi-final draw we edged Salford Red Devils at home for our fourth straight win - confidence was high and the Wolves were struggling having only just overcome the challenge of Championship favourites Leigh Centurions in the quarter finals.

Then our season imploded because, unfortunately, we are not allowed to play every game at home - put simply our away form this year has been atrocious and has cost us a top 8 spot.

8 of our 9 league wins have come at home with our ONLY away win coming over Easter at Hull FC - we have lost all of our other 11 league games played away from the KC Lightstream Stadium - only bottom team Wakefield have a comparable record - Catalans have only won one away game also but at least they got a draw at the Magic Weekend against Huddersfield.

On the back of defeats away to Huddersfield and Salford (after leading 18-4 at half time) at home to Hull FC and a final game hammering at St. Helens, it is fair to say that Rovers confidence would not be at it's highest going into the semi-final - however we have usurped our away form in the Cup registering away wins at Championship side Bradford Bulls and the famous last 16 win against Wigan Warriors - a defeat that amusingly devastated Warriors coach Shaun Wane.

On the other hand – Warrington have won 3 of their 4 league games since losing 36-10 at Rovers and last Sunday they dismantled the Castleford Tigers 44-6 at The Jungle – Tony Smith has been quoted as saying that the defeat to Rovers ‘’had turned their season around.’’

So, after a few hours sleep and a quick breakfast at McDonland’s we headed west along the M62 looking forward to a good day out but not hoping for too much – certainly not daring to dream about a first visit to the ‘new’ Wembley Stadium.

We reached Leeds in good time but hit the expected heavy traffic around the Yorkshire TV Studios on Kirkstall Road and up in to Headingley – there were scores of Hull KR coaches, mini buses and cars making the same journey as us and we encountered Warrington fans the closer we got to Headingley.

Having found a decent parking spot ½ a mile from the ground we walked towards the stadium and became engulfed in a sea of Red and White and Primrose and Blue as we made or way into the ground.

The boys at the Cricket venue.

One of the many things I like about Headingley is the opportunity to have an unhindered view of the wonderful Test Match cricket arena situated just behind the North Stand and as we walked around the Test Match venue to get to the Western side of the North Stand where we were to be seated we saw Leeds Rhinos Chief Executive Gary Hetherington in a very snazzy pin striped suit and former Rovers full back Shaun Briscoe – now working on the Community Development side for Warrington Wolves and I also bumped into an old friend, David Howes, who has held many positions of power in the game of Rugby League and is one of the best MC’s and compere’s on the after dinner circuit as well – he is a very nice chap and a Hull Kingston Rovers fan.

The BBC crew.

We found our rightful seats and as we were climbing the stand I saw another old friend of mine who I have known for many years and played rugby alongside as well – we had a good chat and we took some photograph’s of the BBC team of Mark Chapman, Jamie Peacock, Jon Wilkin and Brian Noble who had just started presenting the programme on BBC1 and my youngest son Kingsley had a photograph taken with Rovers mascot Rufus the Robin along with one of his school friends, Harvey, who he also plays rugby alongside for Skirlaugh Bulls U6s.

As we took our seats I saw another 3 ex rugby playing colleagues from my amateur days and another two at half time and also one after the match had finished– it really was a case of a Reckitt’s old boys day out.

Officially, Rovers had sold over 6,500 tickets for the semi-final – the most of any of the four semi-finalists – but there must have been at least 9-9,500 Rovers fans in a crowd of around 13,500 and the atmosphere when the two teams came out was exceptional with the Rovers fans making far more noise than their Wolves counterparts.

As you will all know by now this was an epic match with the result in doubt until the last few minutes and you will realise that I am one very happy Hull Kingston Rovers fan as I write this over my first beer of Saturday night.

However, we made the worst start possible as we cocked up the Wolves kick off, had to drop out and then conceded a try to Ryan Atkins all in the first couple of minutes – to say we felt slightly deflated and worried was an understatement as the Wolves continued to pummel our defensive line – but something happened that hasn’t too often this season – our defence held and some wonderful last ditch heroic defence held the Wolves at bay.

Somehow we managed to restrict the Wolves to just one try and then we started to get a foothold on the game in the second quarter – a great back line move saw Kieran Dixon put Super League’s top scorer Josh Mantellato in at the left corner. Mantellato did really well to score the try as the pass from Dixon was high and he had to collect it at pace and throw himself in at the corner. Mantellato hit the post with the conversion but it wasn’t long before Rovers actually hit the front.

Ken Sio scores.

A great high kick by Albert Kelly saw the on rushing Ken Sio jump higher than his opposite wingman Gene Ormsby to juggle the ball before collecting and diving over for Rovers second try. Mantellato converted this time and Rovers led 10-6.

The game was now on and Rovers were giving the Wolves a real hammering in defence and Ben Harrison felt the effects of the tough tackling when he had to be taken from the field suffering from concussion not to be seen again in the match.
 

It wasn’t all Rovers though.

The Wolves back line was looking dangerous and their swift handling moves were causing problems but the Rovers defence held firm.

The problem was that Rovers were making headway into the Wolves half but would then make an unforced error or concede a penalty and would then be consistently defending within their own 10 metre line and anyone who has played the game will tell you that this is the toughest area of the field to defend because you are under constant pressure but unbelievably they didn’t crack and the Wolves started making some unforced errors of their own.

Rovers eschewed a couple of earlier opportunities to kick penalty goals but eventually they did so at the third time of asking and Mantellato converted to give us a 12-6 half time lead.

I spoke to a few of my former rugby playing colleagues at half time and we were all of the opinion that the Wolves would come out fired up after half time and that Rovers needed to get the first score – I had seen this position so many times as a Rovers fan and seen us blown away in a quick fire 10-15 minute spell – I was not certain that this would not happen again. I still did not dare to fully believe!!!

But in fact it was Rovers who made the stronger start – the Wolves certainly were not as fired up as I expected them to be and the boys extended their six point half time lead to an almost unbelievable 14 points.

French second rower Kevin Larroyer somehow took four defenders with him and he managed to squeeze a hand out near the line to touch the ball down – referee Richard Silverwood went to the video referee, having given the no try signal, but it was clear that Larroyer got the ball down and the refs verdict was overturned and the try was awarded – cue hysteria amongst the Rovers contingent.

Mantellato converted and kicked his second penalty shortly afterwards and Rovers had a 20-6 lead – this was scarcely believable, Garry Schofield thought the game would be over by half time and we know he is always right!!!!

I was keeping an eye on the clock and I wanted us to retain that 14 point lead until the 60^th minute – probably just a psychological thing but I just felt that one Wolves try would quickly lead to another and we needed to keep them out as long as possible.

Richie Myler scores.

Sadly, it was not to be. The game was being played in atrocious conditions and the Wolves piled the pressure on the Rovers line and scrum half Richie Myler was the man who kick started the Wolves comeback as he forced his way over for O’Brien to convert. It was now 20-12 and those Mantellato penalty goals were looking very important but Rovers were going to experience a torrid 10-15 minutes.

Within a few minutes of Myler’s try, the Wolves thought they were over again – they created the overlap and Joel Monaghan threw himself in at the right corner but the cover tackle of Kieran Dixon and Kris Welham was enough to dislodge the ball from his grasp and after a number of views by the video referee it was declared a no try and there was a huge sense of relief but the pressure was still on and Rovers started to make some unforced handling errors.

First Adam Walker lost the ball in the tackle before Kris Welham did the same thing close to our line and this time it cost us dearly.

The Wolves quickly moved the ball left and a brilliantly delayed pass by Myler allowed Ben Currie to charge over the line – O’Brien again kicked the conversion and there was now just two points in the game with 13 very long minutes to go – the confidence was draining out of me but the boys were showing tonnes of character and spirit in tough conditions and the Rovers fans were making enough noise to carry them through – hopefully!!

Lunt scores the match winner.

We needed a score and I wasn’t sure where it was going to come from – the conditions were too poor for us to try and spread the ball through hands quickly and at the end of the day we didn’t need to score but something was needed to settle my nerves and it came in the shape of Cumbrian hooker Shaun Lunt who, somehow, managed to break a couple of tackles, quickly push off from the ground and just about touch the ball down on the line – it was another decision that went to the video referee and when the try was awarded the roof came off Headingley as every single Hull KR fan in that ground realised we were going to Wembley for the Challenge Cup Final for the first time since 1986.

I missed Mantellato’s fifth goal of the day as I was still busy celebrating the fact we were going to Wembley with my two boys and singing ‘’We’re Hull Kingston Rovers’’ – the final couple of minutes was played out to a chorus of Hull KR songs and the noise was so loud it reminded me so much of our trophy laden heyday of the early to late 1980’s.

At the sound of the final hooter we raced down to the side of the pitch and waited for the players to come around to our side of the pitch and sang ‘’A Little Respect’’ by Erasure while we did so – we all certainly are so in love with our team after this semi-final performance.

The boys celebrate.

As the players came around to our side of the stadium in the pouring rain we had a hand shake with Shaun Lunt, a big hug with Kieran Dixon who looked in shock and got a wave from Chris Chester and John Boudebza – what a find he has been this season – he was outstanding once again.

Man of the Match Mantellato.

I know Mantellato took the official man of the match award and he played very well as he always does – again what a find he has been – but for me the stand out performer was Kris Welham.

He tackled everything in sight and constantly made good yardage from dummy half – he really has been outstanding this season after looking like he was on his way out of the club before the season started and there also has to be a special mention for Maurice Blair – he might not grab the headlines like his former Gold Coast Titans team mate Albert Kelly but we would be a lesser team without him and his defensive effort, along with all of his team mates, was absolutely brilliant.

See you at Wembley. (I still can’t believe it)