THE MAN BEHIND THE RISE OF HULL KR
TALKING RUGBY LEAGUE
With
MARTYN SADLER
Editor
WATCHING the game between Hull KR and Warrington last Thursday night, I wasn’t too surprised to see the Robins struggling to play at the level we’ve seen from them earlier in the season.
It’s been clear for several weeks that the team had run out of gas and was struggling to dominate its opponents in the way we had got used to seeing.
They limped to the finishing line, but the important thing was that they got there in the end against a strong challenge from a Warrington team that has also been limping along ever since losing out to the Robins at Wembley in June. That defeat, which came very late in the game, seems to have made a lasting impression on the minds of the Warrington players.
The important thing for Hull KR is that they now have a fortnight to prepare for their semi-final, by which time I will be amazed if they haven’t rediscovered the spark that was there for much of the season.
The person for whom I was most pleased on the night was Hull KR owner Neil Hudgell (pictured), who has invested time, money and much emotion into his time with the club since buying it in 2004, when the club finished third in National League 1 (then the second tier) with an average attendance of 2,186 (it’s interesting to note that Leigh came top of that competition in 2004 with an average attendance of 2,166).