Hull KR make worst start by champions in a decade as unwanted ten-year record set
Mikey Lewis dejected after Hull KR's defeat to York in Round 1 of the 2026 Super League season
Hull KR have become the first defending champions to lose their first two Super League games of the year since, coincidentally, Leeds Rhinos in 2016.
The Robins were all-conquering in 2025 and sealed a domestic treble, just as Leeds did in 2015.
Having lifted the Challenge Cup and League Leaders’ Shield before clinching the Super League title, the Robins went one better than the Rhinos of a decade ago by winning the World Club Challenge.
But despite holding all four major honours on offer, KR are now 0-2 in Super League having lost out to newly-promoted York on the opening night of the season and then been HAMMERED in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Their conquerors in Sin City by a 58-6 margin? Leeds!
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Hull KR equal unwanted ten-year record with trend to buck after Las Vegas implosion
Willie Peters’ side served up their worst performance for some time in Vegas, conceding 28 points in each half on a night where their only response came through Joe Burgess’ consolation try.
KR’s circumsances are very different to those of Leeds a decade ago in the sense that some of the Rhinos’ greatest-ever players hung up their boots at the end of that treble-winning season in 2015.
A new-look Rhinos side which had lost Jamie Peacock, Kevin Sinfield and Kylie Leuluai were thumped 38-4 on home soil in the 2016 World Club Challenge by North Queensland Cowboys.
But where the current Super League champions are concerned, there is most certainly now a need to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Back in 2016, that Leeds side lost their first three Super League games of the year: beaten by Warrington Wolves, Widnes Vikings and Catalans Dragons.
KR this year will play their third league game of the campaign on Sunday afternoon when they travel to Huddersfield Giants.
That is a battle of the current bottom two, with the Giants going 0/3 at the start of the year having been well beaten by fellow strugglers Castleford Tigers last weekend.
The positive omen for the Robins? Leeds got their first win of 2016 against the Giants, ending up 20-16 winners at Headingley.
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