Rovers travel to Catalan for their first game in five weeks

Hull Kingston Rovers play their first game in five weeks this Saturday as they travel over to the south of France to face league leaders Catalans Dragons in a hastily arranged fixture.

Rovers have not played since mid-June after a COVID outbreak of their own and positive tests from other clubs that they were scheduled to face off against, including St Helens earlier this week. The Saints declared their squad unable to fulfil the fixture with KR just one day after celebrating their Challenge Cup win with an open top bus parade and left the Rovers with no fixture again.

However, Catalans Dragons game against the team that Saints defeated at Wembley in the cup final – Castleford Tigers – was also postponed due to COVID issues with the Tigers, so both they and KR agreed to be a ‘filler’ fixture, arranging the Saturday evening clash at very short notice.

The Robins’ last game did see them earn a victory, though the 18-8 win away at Wigan Warriors’ DW stadium on June 18  will feel like a lifetime ago to the Rovers fans. Despite not playing for such a lengthy period, Tony Smith’s men are clinging on to sixth place in the Betfred Super League table and with it, the all important final play-off spot.

Catalans, in contrast, have been on fire in July – winning all three of their games this month. They have beaten Huddersfield Giants, and won back-to-back fixtures against Leeds Rhinos  to maintain their position at the top of the Super League table, with a win percentage of 92.31% ratio having lost only once so far this campaign. 

Head-to-Head

Steve McNamara’s Dragons have won the last two meetings between the clubs, with the most recent being a 29-28 golden point victory back in the opening round of this Super League season in March. On that day, the ever-influential James Maloney kicked the drop goal which secured victory for Catalan. 

Rovers started poorly in that game, and were 18-4 down at half-time, but fought back in the second half and scored four unanswered tries to level things up come the final hooter, only to lose in ‘extra time’. 

For their last victory against the Dragons, you have to go back to August 2019 when a scoreline of 6-24 earned KR the two points. Notably, Ryan Shaw scored all bar four of those 24 points, two tries and six successful conversions. 

Team News

Catalans Dragons squad: Bousquet, Chan, Da Costa, Davies, Dezaria, Drinkwater, Dudson, Franco, Garcia, Goudemand, Jullien, Kasiano, Langi, McMeeken, Mourgue, Rouge, Seguier, S. Tomkins, Whare, Whitley, Yaha.

Unavailable: Michael McIlorum, James Maloney, Joel Tomkins, Jason Baitieri.

Hull KR squad: Abdull, Crooks, Hadley, Hall, Johnson, Keinhorst, Kenny-Dowall, King, Lawler, Linnett, Litten, Maher, Milnes, Minikin, Mustapha, Parcell, Quinlan, Sims, Storton, Takairangi, Vete.

Unavailable: Elliot Minchella, Ethan Ryan.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt