Imperfect Hull KR pass test under pressure as Leigh’s glaring frailty exposed

It certainly wasn’t perfect from the defending champions – far from it, in fact.

Throughout the majority of the last trophy-laden 18 months, the one thing you have always been able to rely on with Hull KR is that they find a way to keep their key men on the field. Leigh, however, have had less luck. And it clearly has an impact.

Which is what made the team news that trickled through at around 6:30pm on Friday evening so intriguing. Hull KR, without both Oli Gildart and Jez Litten – and Arthur Mourgue still sat on the sidelines. By the midway point of this game, Rovers had also lost Joe Burgess and at one stage had Rhyse Martin and Karl Lawton in the centres.

It’s rare that the Robins have to reshuffle and readjust without so many key players, and it made it a fascinating game. Could the champions cope without so many key players? It’s a question we haven’t needed to ask too many times in the past couple of years.

As mentioned right at the start, it wasn’t perfect, but it was ultimately more than enough to get the job done and answer the question: this Robins squad can cope when it is stretched.

They weren’t tested enough in crucial moments by a Leigh side who flattered to deceive – more on them shortly – and there are questions over the likes of Jack Broadbent, and whether he is quite at the level of Mourgue, for example. He is definitely improving, but Mourgue will be a welcome return.

But Rovers, on the whole, dealt with everything that was thrown at them in terms of pre and mid-game absentees and were ultimately too strong for a Leigh side that had been one of the form horses in Super League prior to this.

Willie Peters will demand and expect much more than some of what the Robins produced. But both teams had enough disruption to make this a night where winning was really the only thing that mattered.

Leigh’s big frailty exposed at Hull KR

The team news was just as seismic when it came to Leigh. Without Lachlan Lam for only the second time since he joined the club four years ago, it meant the onus of leading the Leopards around the park fell on Adam Cook. The Australian has grown into his first season in Super League, but this was a significant step up in expectation.

He and his team-mates fell short – and while you were able to say with some confidence by 10pm that Hull KR can cope without a key man such as Litten, the answer for Leigh was very different.

You have always sensed – be it through the plain old eye test or the statistics – that Leigh are heavily reliant on Lam and everything he does.

Cook, in particular, had a night to forget with a pretty tame display with ball in hand but the Leopards have to shoulder the burden of this one collectively. Too often they found themselves in promising attacking positions, and too often they came away with absolutely nothing.

But no moment summed them up more than Umyla Hanley’s scintillating break and Matt Davis dropping the pass that would have reduced the gap to ten points with 12 minutes remaining.

Leigh are definite play-off contenders – but you can’t shake the feeling that they are simply too reliant on one man.