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East meets West as the Robins take on the Rhinos

Credit: Sky Sports

Hull KR face Leeds Rhinos this Friday night, with both teams looking to make it back to back wins.

The Robins blew Wakefield away as they scored seven tries in a great attacking display. This ended a poor run of form for Willie Peters side, who had lost their three previous games ahead of their trip to Belle Vue.

A big part of the victory was their defence. They repelled Wakefield on almost every attack, and they built a solid platform off this. They will need to do this again to limit a Rhinos attack who were in fine form last week.

In attack, they will be looking to replicate their sharp performance from last week. They played fast, flowing rugby and utilised the wide channels to good effect.

They also adopted their usual strong kicking game, both from deep to gain territory and from close range to keep the pressure on. This forced Wakefield into errors, which they turned into points.

The Rhinos have shown they’re capable of making errors this season when under pressure, so this could result in points for the Robins on Friday night.

The performance of stand-off Mikey Lewis was vital to their victory against Wakefield. His kicking kept pressure on the Wakefield defence, and helped create three tries. He was also fantastic ball in hand with strong powerful running which cut open the defence. He will need to reach similar levels against Leeds.

This creates a tasty looking head-to-head contest with Blake Austin.

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Austin has come under fire for his performances this season, but the Australian was an important part of the Rhinos comeback against Catalans, which saw them win 32-22 against the French outfit. He too will need to reach this level again if the Rhinos are going to overcome the Robins.

The performance in the second-half was the best 40 minutes we’ve seen from the Rhinos this season.

On both sides of the ball the Rhinos showed levels they hadn’t yet reached so far. In defence, they fronted up and managed to stop big carries through the middle. In attack, strong work from their pack dented the Catalans defence and the spine connected to good effect to turn the dents into points.

In team news, Hull KR welcome back Jordan Abdull, Frankie Halton and Dean Hadley, who have all overcome head knocks. Abdull looks likely to partner Mikey Lewis in the halfbacks, which bodes well for the Robins. Ryan Hall is also named in the squad, despite picking up an injury against Wakefield. He looks set to form an exciting backline with Lachlan Coote and Louis Senior. Tom Opacic will miss the game due to injury.

Rohan Smith has named his 21-man-squad ahead of the game, which sees the return of star prop Mikolaj Oledzki, who is set for his first game of the season. He is one of six props named in the squad. James Bentley also returns to the squad after his ban. He looks set to feature in the second-row, which opens up the chance for Rhyse Martin to again feature at centre after his impressive display last week. Luke Hooley is included, and could make his debut for the club.