Tbf maybe it would have been closer had Kelly played. Speaking of which

Two seasons in a relegation dogfight though. Maybe the hype was a bit excessive after all.

I heard right then. As Brian Carney said after the game
"On the positive side for Hull KR they were really dominant..for the first 4 minutes"

The stats are interesting. rovers had 3 forwards, including the donkey tilse, who made more metres than any of our forwards. in fact we struggled to make ground in quite a few sets whereas they seemed to make it easily most of the game - something we also saw against leeds and hudds where our defence isn't moving up quickly and aggressively enough for me. It was our goal line defence (and rovers being rubbish with the ball)added to a much improved attack that won us the game.

lawler looks a really good prospect for rovers and hopefully we can sign him when he decides to move to a bigger club

I though Walker was excellent for them, I reckon they made a lot of metres towards the end, but I agree we need to tighten up the ruck and slow the play down.

I watched the game again and we hardly missed first half according to the commentators, it was the last 20 when they made the breaks and metres.

Goal line defence was great and some very good attacking play, particularly on the right

i think a lot of that could come down to how early in the tackle counts we were kicking too. Numerous times on 3rd/4th tackle we were kicking - do that for 10 sets in game and you are talking about another 20 carries at least

Great win. One of the easier and more relaxed derbies to watch I can remember. Too big, too fast and too strong against a hapless bunch of cellar dwellers who were certainly one of the worst teams to visit the KCOM this season despite being almost at full strength. Good to see some form return to some of our key players - and specifically what a great advert for the U23's competition was Jordan Abdull. Early season he looked overweight and way off the pace. The U23 comp has allowed a young player to develop his fitness and hone his skills away from the pressure of first team and he looked a different player as a result last night.

Great performance last night.

I did wonder why we had Pryce on the bench but then realised we were playing a team with a cheap shot hatchet man type player in Cockayne who, when not spitting his dummy out was trying to injury key players (Sneyd and Shaul).

I thought Radford's interchanges were very good.

I know Ellis' presence on the field give Hull a massive lift, but Minichello's aggression when running the ball in was amazing.

Funoa? Do you accept he will inexplicably knock on with the line at his mercy if he can release his winger, Michaels, with amazing off loads? Or would you want him to be super safe, never knock on but never pass?

As for rovers, I think they are owed an apology from Kelly.

Really really impressive performance last night...

Fonua for mine, was the best attacking centre display in a Hull shirt for many years...
Yeaman's defence was awesome..

The pack was phenomenal, Ellis was brutal, Houghton has looked a different player
in attack, just shows a difference how a quicker PTB ,gives him more time..

For mine, I prefer Michaels over Talanoa, Tuli is superb at bringing the ball out of our end,
but Michaels for mine is more reliable.

At 6, I prefer Abdull over Tuimavave, JA has better skill and creativity.....-IMO

Also IF Fonua, was played left centre alongside Pritchard - my god!!

The only constructive criticism, is we need to more direct and assertive,(ball in hand)
in attacking the opposition's try line - 10 yards out..

All in all, a great performance..

Fonua - you have to accept that ball security is going to be weak at times, but that is the nature of the beast. He can bounce players away, show incredible strength yet a deftness with his hands with those one handed offloads. He has a style similiar (and i dont mean this in a bad way) to Jamie Thackray - one arm carry, using his upper body to bounce off players. Sometimes they will get under the ball - but he is exciting to watch

Mentioned above about playing him on the left - you could play him there, he did for Melbourne. Him outside of Frank could be lethal

If Fonua protecs the ball a little more when going into the tackle instead of taking the impact on his one arm ball carrying style think he would be more secure with ball in hand, but as has been said thats the nature of the beast that he is. He is a definite handful no doubt and two great offloads to release Michaels.

if there is a better defensive centre in the league than yeaman still, I haven't seen him. that side of the defence has been rock solid all season

despite claims (rightly) for Houghton and taylor to be considered for MOS I feel that its sneyd who is going to command the most attention from our club come voting time

assuming the form carried on I can see the above 3 in the dream team without question along with ellis (no brainer) and even possibles for watts, shaul and minicello, but as the superleague won't want too many players in from any one club we will probably get 3 at most. no doubt wigan and leeds will get more in than us

if we can keep most fit imo we could be on our way to some silverware, I honestly believe this team can beat anybody,

Amazing what a fit ENGLISH half back can do isn't it

This sums it it up really. We could do this we really could