Hull KR look to keep pressure on the top six as they meet Leigh Centurions in closing game at the Magic Weekend

Play-off chasers Hull Kingston Rovers can keep up the pressure on Super League’s top six with a third victory of the campaign over bottom side Leigh Centurions as the pair meet in the closing game of the Magic Weekend in Newcastle.

A contender for the ‘surprise package’ of the season to date, KR were tipped by some to be relegation contenders but instead sit eighth with just three matches of the regular season remaining.

Rovers have stumbled recently though, and three consecutive defeats have seen them drop out of the top six. In their last outing, they lost 40-28 away at Huddersfield Giants, with the result following on from narrow losses against both Wakefield Trinity and bitter rivals Hull FC.

After the Leigh game at Magic Weekend, Tony Smith’s side go on to face Castleford Tigers at home and Leeds Rhinos away. Both of those teams currently occupy spots within the top six but are within touching distance for the Robins, so two wins from three could see them sneak into the play-offs.

As for their opponents at St James’ Park, Leigh, the tale reads differently. Also tipped by many for relegation this season following their hastily arranged promotion up into the top-flight, they haven’t managed to prove many doubters wrong.

Though there have been some glimmers of hope in terms of performance at different points throughout, the Centurions have just one win to date in the campaign to show for it and that came a few weeks ago against the Salford Red Devils.

Interestingly, the Leythers scored points in each of their games this season until their Bank Holiday Monday encounter against Catalans Dragons. A 64-0 drubbing away in France obliterated that record and with it showed the gulf in class between the top and bottom of those in Super League.

Even if Leigh were to win all three of their remaining games, including the fixture against KR, their win percentage would be a poor 18%. Their nearest club in the table, Salford, could only fall to a lowest possible win percentage of 27% with three defeats so a bottom place finish is now confirmed for the Centurions.

However, the relegation which normally comes with that isn’t. Confirmation of whether Leigh will be sent back down to the Championship again is awaited from the RFL and/or Super League’s officials, with a decision not expected to be announced until the campaign has drawn to a close with the Leythers having to play the waiting game.

Squads

Too often across the Super League this season, teams haven’t been able to name a full lineups going into games, however, for this one, it’s pleasing to see that both Rovers and Leigh have named squads of 21-men respectively.

As for KR, Tony Smith’s squad for the trip up to Newcastle has just one change from Monday’s defeat at Huddersfield as Will Dagger replaces George Lawler, who has picked up an injury to his thumb.

Dagger, who turned 22 earlier this year, has spent time out on loan with Championship high-flyers Featherstone Rovers during this campaign but now will look to try and cement a place back in the Robins’ team ahead of the all-important run-in at the back end of the season.

Meanwhile, interim Leigh Head Coach Kurt Haggerty makes four changes to his squad from those who were beaten heavily in France. Matty Russell, Iain Thornley, James Bell and club captain Liam Hood all return to the 21.

Ben Flower, Tom Spencer, Josh Eaves and Tom Nisbet all miss out. Notably, Nisbet joined the Centurions last Saturday on an initial one-week loan and by the time the two sides kick-off at the Magic Weekend, that deal will have expired.

Head-to-Head

As mentioned earlier, KR have already got the better of Leigh on two occasions this season. A comfortable 40-16 home victory at KCOM Craven Park back in May was followed by another success at the Leigh Sports Village last month, though that was anything but routine.

Played in front of the Sky Sports cameras, the game swung in momentum on numerous occasions with Leigh first leading then going behind before mounting a comeback to hold the advantage again with 15 minutes remaining.

However, Shaun Kenny Dowall crossed to level things up and then Ryan Hall got over in the corner with five minutes left to break the Centurions’ hearts. Former Leigh man Ben Crooks converted, and it ended 34-28 in KR’s favour.

To make things worse for Leigh, Liam Hood also got the ball over the line in the dying seconds and thought he had presented the chance to level things up again with a conversion, but the try was disallowed for offside.

For the Leythers’ last success against KR, came back in the Super League qualifiers in 2016. Having won the Championship by some distance, Leigh earned promotion via the qualifiers and picked up an 25-18 win at Craven Park in the process.

The Robins would go onto feature in the Million Pound game against Salford, one in which they lost 19-18 courtesy of a Gareth O’Brien drop goal in golden point extra-time. Courtesy of that result, they were relegated from the Super League while the Red Devils kept their place by the finest of margins.

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