Brilliant Hull KR ‘sort things out’ in strong Huddersfield Giants victory as Robins hope to ‘peak at the right time’

Hull KR secured a deserved 36-6 win over Huddersfield Giants at Craven Park, putting both feet firmly in the play-offs in the process.

Willie Peters’ side opened the scoring inside 10 minutes through Elliot Minchella, before Arthur Mourgue (two), Jack Broadbent, Jez Litten and Tom Davies added their names to the scoresheet in a fine evening on home soil.

Huddersfield did hit back with a try of their own for good measure, with Tanguy Zenon crossing the whitewash, but it was not enough to take the spoils back to West Yorkshire.

Here are our key takeaways from the round 26 clash.

Crash, bang, wallop

There was just an underlying spot of tension tonight. Nothing silly, but it just bubbled away throughout.

Little flare-ups of afters here and there, especially after indiscretions or incidents that one of the two teams didn’t necessarily think was play-on, added a genuine lick of steel and aggression to a game which threatened to be a non-contest around the 20-minute mark. As a result, each contact seemed to have a bit more venom, a bit more bite, a bit more intent.

There was real feeling in it, which fuelled a really sharp, interesting affair. Both sides will feel rather sore in the morning.

Rest and reward

We’re not going to go over old ground here and give thoughts on Hull KR’s rotation against Wigan Warriors. That would simply be pointless to reflect on that exact affair. But what it has done, clearly, is give Peters’ usual charges that extra rest they needed. And they looked all the better for it.

Was this a return to the Hull KR side that was so dominant last season? No. Was it a much improved performance across the board? Undoubtedly.

There were some lovely flashes of play in their attack; take Arthur Mourgue’s two tries in the first-half as an example of that, or even Tom Davies’ effort in the second as prime examples. It seemed the Robins were playing with just a touch more invention in their attack, running different shapes, playing flat at the line, having multiple options to hit and targeting space. That improvement just fuelled a renewed confidence in their play, which in turn fuelled more ambition, which in turn fuelled confidence and so on and so forth. It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy, a positive version of a vicious cycle, if you will.

But the biggest improvement was in defence.

Again, you do kind of have to remove last weekend’s defeat out of the equation in this regard, but when you compare it to the leaky, porous defence against Toulouse, then it becomes abundantly clear that they have sorted things out. In that defeat to the in-form French side, the Robins missed a mind-boggling 60 tackles. Tonight? Just 24. A 36-tackle difference. A 26-point difference.

They just seemed to gobble up the Giants’ attack, which did pose serious questions, to be fair. Their line was ultra-connected from edge to edge, be it in an aggressive blitz shape or just standard swallow defence, which in turn forced the visitors to take the inside option instead of going wide. They also hunted in little packs of three or four, which again just isolated the Giants’ ball-carrier and stopped their offloading game.

It seems the rest has done the Robins the world of good. They look like they’re getting their mojo back. Could they be about to peak at the right time?

Red Red Robin comes bob bob bobbin along

Wake up, sleepyheads! Hull KR are booked in the play-offs. They’ve done it.

That seems a weird sentence to write about the reigning World Club Challenge holders and the 2025 treble winners, but it’s been far from plain sailing for Peters’ side.

A run of three straight defeats and five in their previous 10 before this meeting with the former basement boys had dragged the Robins right back into the play-off melee with St Helens, almost setting up a shoot-out between the sides next weekend in the final round of the regular season. However, results elsewhere and a welcome return to winning ways have ensured they have booked their spot in the end-of-season dance for another season.

It won’t be smooth sailing from here, with the Robins likely to be on the road for the duration of them, but the key thing is they’re in the play-offs. That’s the big takeaway.