Hull KR join exclusive Super League club after latest win as Grand Final omen set
Jack Broadbent celebrates a Hull KR try against Castleford.
Can anyone stop Hull KR right now? The Robins maintained their position at the Super League summit with another huge victory on Thursday evening: joining a very elite club in the process.
Their 48-0 win at Castleford further underlined Rovers’ title credentials and made it 14 wins from 15 Super League games to start the 2025 campaign. It is, by some distance, the best start they have ever made to a Super League season: and only one club overall has made a better one.
That club was Bradford Bulls in 1997, who won their first 15 games without tasting defeat on the way to winning the last Super League title that was decided without a play-off series.
Three other teams have matched Rovers’ feat across the years and won 14 of their first 15 games, aside from the Bulls.
The first was the year after Matthew Elliott’s all-conquering Bradford, Wigan Warriors in 1998. They also lost just once in the first 15 league games, and went on to become champions, winning the inaugural Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos.
It didn’t happen again for another eight seasons, until St Helens won 14 of their first 15 league games on the way to sweeping the board and winning the treble.
The next team to do it? St Helens again! That was in 2019 when they ended their wait for a league title by beating Salford Red Devils at Old Trafford in the Grand Final. The foundations were laid earlier in the year, with a wonderful start to the season.
And two years later, Catalans joined that club with 14 wins from 15 games to start the season, which was impacted by Covid. Like every other team to have achieved this feat, Catalans ended the season top – albeit on points percentage.
The omens keep coming, too. And every team in the Grand Final era who has done it has always made Old Trafford.
The only team that didn’t go all the way and end the season as champions were Catalans four years ago. So history is very much in Hull KR’s favour.
Super League best starts after 15 games
Bradford Bulls 1997: 15/15 (champions)
Wigan Warriors 1998: 14/15 (champions)
St Helens 2006: 14/15 (champions)
St Helens 2019: 14/15 (champions)
Catalans Dragons 2021: 14/15 (Grand Final runners-up)
Hull KR 2025: 14/15
