Strange first half. We played pretty well for most of it but are lucky not to be further behind. Hull with more cutting edge and I think they’re playing with more adventure than Rovers anticipated.

Good contest. Hull with a bit more urgency overall. Fair play.

Edit. Tony is a class act. We’ll be alright.

Good game. Great atmosphere . Nice to have the true Derby back

Well that was a good game to watch. The ref and video did a great job keeping rovers in the game by giving all the 50/50 calls but it certainly made it entertaining.

OOOOhh yeah - the decision to go for a DG at 20 mins was the weakest thing I've seen in years. I loved it and took the pressure off us as we would have wilted at another dropout. That was so so so weak and sent us a message that you were scared.
That allowed me to win my return flight money back to Hull via 5 nights in a 5 star hotel in Dubai. I had a few grand on FC off level.
That weak DG decision really helped us more than robers will ever know. Psychologically WEAK decision.

Your posting history is weirdly fascinating… or fascinatingly weird.

I particularly enjoyed the 3-year silence after the 2013 Cup Final. I’m enjoying imagining you stuck in Atlanta airport on some sort of visa technicality, without internet access and getting by using tactics borrowed from Tom Hanks’ character in The Terminal. Makes me feel a bit better about my journey back to Oxfordshire from Wembley in 2015.

I’m taking your absence since May 9th as another barometer of our progress.

That was a great Derby match yesterday.

Fair play, I thought your support was brilliant. Regardless of our differences, I’ve also thought we have the best two sets of fans in the game when it comes to supporting their team. The game is stronger and better with both of us in Super League, long may it continue.

I think we’ll both make the Play Offs. I think Wigan will be the ones who miss out, they have the toughest run in.

Still think we lost it ourselves rather than FC winning it
Great advert for the game, pity FC Pearson would like to do away with this derby fixture as I'm sure he thinks Rovers should merge with his mob, maybe should be the other way around.

Adam mentioned the M word, but not specifically Hull and Rovers.

I wouldn’t wish s merger on any team. Merging Hull and Rovers would be a huge mistake. Each club would lose it’s history, songs and pride overnight. Things that make Derby events like yesterday special.

If a merger ever did happen, it would be a disaster. If it was located at NCP, it would retain some, but not all Rovers fans, and vice versa if it was at the KC. I can’t imagine budgets being higher, so it’s not like fans in the city would be able to start watching some of the world’s best players.

Replacing one of our teams with a club like York would be a backward step. Instead of being able to attract 20k+ to a match on Good Friday, they’d struggle to get 5k for York v a merged Hull team. Hardly progress.

Something has to change, starting with a single professional independent body governing the game. League structures may need to change, either two stronger leagues or an enhanced NRL league structure. However, you don’t start trying to grow the game by throwing thousands of loyal fans away.

deluded

So true, I agree completely. It certainly puts a very strong argument against those who still believe mergers are the way forward. Mergers certainly are not the way forward in my view.
The game of rugby league is a fantastic product but as someone on another forum has pointed out, very poorly marketed by the powers that be.
E.g. I bought two national newspapers this morning. Between the two of them I could find only one small mention of the derby.

20 years ago that same game would have covered a half page spread in three or four of the national papers and had a mention on national news. The RFL have to do more to get the product i.e. rugby league out there to the nation at large. So they can at least be given the chance to see just what a great spectacle rugby league is.

Rugby union is in my opinion not as good a game to watch as League, even my brother in law who is an ex union player admitted that when I recently put it to him. However,
those that run union have very good marketing set up within their game. They have people within it that basically know how to sell ice to Eskimos.

Great post, couldn't agree more.

The game has been going downhill slowly, and thanks to a very entertaining derby game on Saturday, it's certainly turned it back the other way a bit. Well done to both clubs. I really enjoyed it.

If available and not played, coaches decision. Don`t recall a law saying you HAVE to play your best players.

When Smith signed for Rovers I thought he would get them going. He is a class coach, ,as his after match comments proved. Just glad Hull scraped through. My nerves were shredded.