Updated 3 hours ago
Try: May, Lewis, Broadbent, Hiku, Litten, Hadley, Hall Goals: Louis (6)
Try: Welsby, Blake, Hurrell (2) Goals: Percival (2)
Hull KR underlined their Super League title credentials by dominating St Helens to move closer to points with six teams at the top of the table.
A week after beating reigning champions Wigan, the Robins scored seven tries against the competition’s meanest defense.
Scrum-half Mikey Lewis scored a try, orchestrated three more and kicked superbly to cap off a wonderful team effort from Hull KR, who join the Saints among half a dozen tied teams with 14 points.
Konrad Hurrell scored two tries for the visitors, who had led in the first half and had previously conceded just 70 points in nine matches.
This campaign is starting to look like a breakthrough for Rovers, who are also in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, where they meet Wigan in a fortnight’s time.
They were irresistible at times against the Saints, with the mercurial Lewis running the show, while Dean Hadley was immense up front and Kelepi Tanginoa a constant threat.
Beginnings in fairy tales
Lewis started as he continued, flicking a delightful kick over the frame for Tyrone May to catch the full and score under the posts, but Saints full-back Jack Welsby squeezed between two tacklers to equalize.
It was close in the first half, as Lewis rushed after Morgan Knowles’ foul for head contact, but Waqa Blake ran onto an arrowed pass from Jonny Lomax to make it 12-10.
Hurrell burst forward to put Saints ahead for the first and only time, but Jack Broadbent has enjoyed a fairytale start at Hull KR, just 11 days after signing on loan with a view to a permanent move.
He was named 18th man, but when Oliver Gildart limped off during the warm-up, he was called into the team five minutes before kick-off and quickly celebrated his first try, thanks to the magic of Lewis and Tanginoa to put the hosts away. 16-14 at halftime.
Rovers took the lead with two tries in four minutes early in the second half, from Peta Hiku and Jez Litten, before Hurrell’s second score gave the Saints a glimmer of hope for a revival.
The Robins were in no mood to give in and after Hadley managed to secure the win, Ryan Hall scored with the final play just one try away from Danny Maguire’s Super League record.
KR shell: Evalds, Burgess, Hiku, Broadbent, Hall, May, Lewis, Sue, Litten, Whitbread, Hadley, James Batchelor, Minchella
Trades : Parcell, Luckley, Storton, Tanginoa
Saint Helena: Welsby, Ritson, Hurrell, Percival, Blake, Lomax, Dodd, Mata’utia, Mbye, Lees, Whitley, Joe Batchelor, Knowles
Trades : Clark, Bell, Sironen, Delaney
