Salford win with Hull KR relegated

Correspondent

Hull KR will play in the Championship next year while Salford remain in Super League after the Red Devils prevailed 19-18 in golden point in the Million Pound game.

With the score locked at 18-18 at full-time, Gareth O’Brien was the hero with a drop goal from 50 metres out to spectacularly win the match.

It was a bitter blow for Hull KR, who are now relegated, after leading up until the 79th minute.

In an emotion-charged afternoon at the KC Lightstream Stadium, Hull KR battled hard to take an early lead.

Hull KR struck first after Adam Walker powered over from short range. Walker somehow managing to break out and squeeze the ball over despite being tackled by three Salford players.

Josh Mantellato kicked the extras to push Rovers 6-0 ahead after eight minutes.

An acrobatic finish from Mantellato in the corner further extended Hull KR’s lead after being put in by Shaun Lunt.

There was some controversy surrounding Salford’s first try, Logan Tomkins’ pass to Luke Burgess appearing to be a forward one before Ben Murdoch-Masila eventually crossed over.

Salford finished the stronger of the two sides in the first half, Niall Evalds profiting from a brilliant pass out from O’Brien to ground the ball.

O’Brien kicked the extras to level the scores at 10-10 with 32 minutes gone.

A Mantellato penalty gave the Robins a valuable 12-10 lead going into the interval.

In the second half the game tightened up, but eventually Hull KR extended their lead when Graeme Horne grubbered for Thomas Minns to score.

Mantellato converted in the 57th minute to make it 18-10.

As the clock ticked away the score remained the same, both sides pushing hard for another try.

In the final 10 minutes Campese was held up over the try-line again.

Just as the Hull KR fans thought they might be home and dry, Evalds posted his second try of the match in the last minute to leave the Red Devils just a try behind their opponents.

Salford completed a dramatic comeback in the final seconds, the ball passing through the hands of several players before falling to Greg Johnson who dived over in the corner after the final hooter had sounded.

The game went into golden point after O’Brien missed the conversion from the sideline.

But O’Brien stepped up in style in extra-time with a long distance field goal to save Salford’s skin and send Hull KR down.

O’Brien will surely never kick a sweeter drop goal in his career.

 

 

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