Hull KR survive early Sheffield scare to complete eight-try win

A fortnight ago, Mark Aston’s Eagles conceded 50 points in a Championship encounter, but yesterday they grafted in the opening 40 minutes to trail just 18-10 at the interval.

And it could have been even better for Sheffield as Mark Mexico spilled the ball on the line, following a 40-20 from Simon Brown, while Ben Blackmore’s ‘try’ was ruled out for a forward pass.

Rovers opened the scoring via tries from Thomas Minns and Shaun Lunt – both converted by Jamie Ellis – before Dane Chisholm replied with a Brown-converted try.

The hosts increased their lead with an Adam Quinlan try, improved by Ellis, before Ben Cockayne was sin-binned and Garry Lo grabbed an Eagles try before half-time.

Quinlan left the field at the break with a dislocated shoulder.

Rovers improved after the break as tries from Lunt, Maurice Blair, Cockayne, Ellis and James Greenwood secured victory but head coach Tim Sheens was far from happy with their eight-try win.

“I wasn’t overly happy with the game from our point of view,” he said. “The scoreline looks like we’ve had a comfortable win, but it wasn’t like that.

“We spoke during the week about having beaten them by 50 points two weeks ago, and trying to get the boys up again was a big effort.

“We warned that it didn’t mean we were just going to go through their line

“I thought the turning point was probably the sin-binning. That really made us pick our act up and we actually started the second half well, completed high and got back into the game when it could have gone either way.

“We got the win which is all that mattered. The draw is on Tuesday and what will be will be. We’ll concentrate on preparing for next week and we’ll take a look at the next cup game when it comes around.”