Hull KR survive Hull FC fightback to win derby

Betfred Super League

Hull FC (0) 10

Tries: Martin, Moy Goals: Sutcliffe

Hull KR (18) 24

Tries: Sue, Lewis, Storton, Minchella Goals: Lewis (4)

Hull KR resisted a brave Hull FC fightback to win the derby and move into third place in Super League.

Tries from Sauaso Sue, Mikey Lewis and Matty Storton in the opening 17 minutes put the Robins in full control and seemingly on course for a big win that could have seen them take second place from Warrington.

But Hull FC’s young side, who have now lost 14 of their last 15 in the league, roused themselves to battle their way back into the game with second-half tries from Lewis Martin and Logan Moy.

The Robins weathered the storm and Elliot Minchella's late score ensured a hat-trick of victories for his team over their cross-city rivals in the competition this season, in a game that occasionally threatened to boil over.

Rovers were looking to bounce back after suffering their first defeat in five games at home to Catalans last week, and they began at a high tempo which their rivals could not match in the 246th meeting of the teams.

The unexpected departure of Hull KR loanee Ben Reynolds in midweek, to join Featherstone, had disrupted the home side’s preparation after they had beaten Leeds and run both Salford and Warrington close in recent matches in a big improvement on their early-season form.

Mikey Lewis whips up the Hull KR fans during his team's derby win over Hull FC

Rovers' opening blitz

But Hull FC were on the back foot from the start as 18-year-old full-back Moy dropped a Lewis bomb to give the Robins an attacking platform from which the powerful Sue took full advantage.

Lewis darted over for his eighth Super League try of the season and Storton added another four points in an opening spell that was reminiscent of the last derby meeting in March, when Rovers were 28-0 up at half-time.

Minchella and Brad Fash were both yellow-carded late in the first half for twice being at the heart of bad-tempered confrontations between the two sets of players, despite a warning from referee Chris Kendall that they needed to “set an example”.

When Rovers’ Joe Burgess was also binned for interference at the play-the-ball, Hull FC made use of the numerical advantage as Martin dived over in the corner and then Moy finished after Davy Litten had streaked through the heart of the away side’s defence.

Liam Sutcliffe nailed the conversion from out on the touchline but missed the second and after Hull FC's Denive Balmforth was also sin-binned with 10 minutes remaining Rovers made sure of victory as Minchella raced on to Ryan Hall’s kick.

Post-match reaction

Hull FC interim head coach Simon Grix:

"I thought our defence was nothing short of pathetic at the beginning. We missed the start and 18-0 was a long way back.

"I'm proud of their effort - they did keep turning up and trying - but we're not good enough to turn up on a Saturday and dip in and out of a plan we've worked on all week.

"Until the players decide to get disciplined we'll have a few more of them. We need to be braver and smarter. I don't think we're brave often enough."

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:

“Derby games are always tough. At 18-0 up we looked fairly comfortable but credit to Hull FC they fought their way back.

“What I was most pleased about was how at the end we closed the game out defensively, as it could have gone either way towards that back end.

“We had a bad start last week so we wanted to start well, which we did, but there were a lot of errors in the game we need to look at and clean up.

“FC stepped up their game and we went away from what we had been doing well. Our tackling was off and we had a few positional changes with Niall (Evalds) coming off the field.”

Hull FC: Moy, Briscoe, Tuimavave, Sutcliffe, Martin, Trueman, Charles, Ese'ese, Smith, Aydin, Lane, Sao, Gardiner

Interchanges: Balmforth, Chan, Fash, D. Litten

Hull KR: Evalds, Burgess, Hiku, Gildart, Hall, May, Lewis, Sue, Parcell, Hadley, Storton, Tanginoa, Minchella

Interchanges: Opacic, J. Litten, Whitbread, Brown

Referee: Chris Kendall.