Hull KR star hails Super League impact on city ahead of Good Friday derby

Hull KR captain Elliot Minchella has shared his pride at young people in the city being inspired by both the Robins and Hull FC’s success in Super League ahead of the Good Friday derby between the pair.

Minchella will line up against FC for the 11th time in his career on Friday when Super League leaders KR make the pilgrimage across the city to the MKM Stadium.

All 10 of those appearances against the Airlie Birds to date have come in a Robins shirt having made the move to Craven Park from hometown club Bradford Bulls in 2020.

Having beaten the West Hull natives in their own backyard a fortnight ago in the Challenge Cup, this time around in ‘Rivals Round’, top spot in Super League is on the line.

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Hull KR star hails Super League impact on city ahead of Good Friday derby

Rovers skipper Minchella has now made exactly 250 senior appearances at club level, with 110 of those coming for KR.

Speaking about the fortunes of the two sides of the city ahead of Good Friday’s derby, he said: “It’s great what’s happening at Super League level, but for me, it’s about what’s happening underneath that.

“We’ve got boys (in the squad) who have young lads and young girls that play, and everyone wants to play now because the rugby that they’re seeing out in Super League is such a good standard.

“The two teams are going well, so all the young kids now in Hull, it inspires them. They want to play for Hull KR, they want to play for Hull FC and they want to go and play with their mates at the weekend.

“That’s our responsibility as players to make them want to do that, but everywhere you go now you just see shirts, training gear, people wearing their club colours.

“It adds to the game, the game’s a bigger occasion, and it adds that extra bit to it.

“It’s great to see them (Hull FC) doing so well, I fully respect them as a club and what they’ve done in such a short space of time. The turnaround has been incredible.”

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‘My second game was a derby at FC in 2020 and I just thought, ‘this is unreal’… now I live over here, I’m in the city and amongst it’

Minchella played his very first senior game as a fresh-faced teenager for Leeds Rhinos back in August 2013, scoring a try in a 42-16 win at Salford, who then still adorned the ‘City Reds’ tagline.

The one-time England international – who turned 29 in January – continued: “I’d obviously been aware of the derby from watching them as a fan, because on Good Friday as a kid you’d sit down and watch the Hull derby then you’d watch Wigan-Saints.

“I did that as a kid and as a teenager, so to be involved in it now is massive.

“I definitely didn’t understand it as an outsider to Hull, even in my first year at the club it was all new to me.

“I think my second game was a derby at FC in 2020 and I just thought, ‘this is unreal’.

“I probably still didn’t get it then, but as soon as I’d moved to Hull and now I live over here, I’m in the city and amongst it.

“I get it now, you hear stories about families being split, how much it means to them, the history of the derby, I absolutely get it.

“I’m not a Hull lad, and I’m sure Hull lads who are involved in that when their parents are split get it a little bit more than me, but I’d like to think I get it as much as I can.”

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