Mike Smith wary of middle eight ‘disaster’ for Hull KR

Hull KR chief executive Mike Smith has made it clear that his club are targeting the top eight in 2015.

Indeed, the Rovers CEO believes that playing in the middle eight of the structure once the league splits would be an unthinkable situation.

Rovers have signed 13 new players this season, and Smith is anticipating success.

“Anything other than the top eight would be a disaster,” he told the Hull Daily Mail.

“Not just for the fact we’d be fighting in the middle eight, but for the fact that the players we have recruited and the quality we have added to what was already here demands that as a minimum.

“For this new team not to make the top eight, something drastic would have to have gone wrong and we’d need to look at why.

“Being in the middle eight would be not very good at all. It would be a disaster for me not to be in the top eight.

“When I say that, if four teams finished sixth, seven, eighth and ninth on the same points and we were ninth because of points difference, that’s different.

“But if we were ninth or tenth outright, that would be a disaster of a season for me.”