Hull KR v Catalans Dragons - Platform for Robins' revival has been set '“ Ben Cockayne

They host the in-form French side having picked up a rare victory with a stunning 30-10 result at treble-winners Leeds Rhinos.

Last Friday’s win was just Rovers’ second of a difficult campaign that has been dogged by injuries, setbacks and changes to their coaching set-up.

However, despite missing key players, it proved they are finding their feet under new head coach James Webster and Cockayne, the experienced full-back, feels the platform has been set ahead of this evening’s televised fixture.

“I think it’s definitely been coming over the last few weeks and, hopefully, we can kick on a bit now,” he said.

“Against Salford, we did it for half a game, we managed an hour against Hull FC, probably 60 to 70 minutes at Wigan and then almost 80 at Headingley.

“I just think it’s a credit to the way we’ve acted in adversity.

“With the injuries we’ve had we’ve still not had our six, seven and nine play together yet – we’ve not moaned about it and just got on with things.

“Everyone who has come into the squad – whoever has played whether young Academy players, guys on the fringes or senior players – has played a massive part.

“We got what we deserved at Leeds and now have to back it up against Catalans.”

Catalans are seeking a fifth straight win, having not only defeated Widnes and Castleford at home recently but also remedied their away form by winning at Wakefield, Huddersfield and Salford.

Rovers will be wary of that even though the French side have seen influential stand-off Todd Carney and hooker Paul Aiton drop out of their squad for the game at KC Lightstream Stadium.

KR have lost their own stand-off, Terry Campese, for up to two months after his failed comeback from a hamstring injury against Leeds but hooker Shaun Lunt did make a successful return, scoring two tries and creating another for Cockayne.

That was just Lunt’s second game of the campaign and Cockayne admitted: “He made a massive difference to us. It makes Shaun’s game easier when our middle goes as well as it did – forwards winning the ruck, getting quick play the balls allows a hooker to do his job – and if you give a player like Shaun Lunt that kind of service, like our forwards did, he’ll carve up most teams.

“He was great and we need to do the same against Catalans.”

With Campese missing, having initially injured his hamstring on his return from a knee reconstruction, the East Yorkshire club will once more turn to fellow countryman Maurice ‘Bobby’ Blair, the second-row who has arguably been Rovers’ best player this term filling in at six.

“Bobby has been outstanding for us,” said 32-year-old Cockayne. “He did a job again for us last week when Campo was injured and we just slotted back into how we’d played before.

“We’re fortunate to have people like Maurice Blair who can play numerous positions and, hopefully, we can kick on this week with another win.”

Cockayne, in his second spell at Rovers and facing a constant battle with Ken Sio and Kieran Dixon for the No 1 jersey, said: “ I thought I was a bit scratchy at Leeds. I managed to support Lunty up the middle for a try and I bombed another when (Iain) Thornley passed back inside.

“But it did come out like a cannonball and smacked me right in the face so…!

“As I’ve got a bit older, I’ve got a bit more picky with how I perform and there were a couple of things I was not too happy with.

“But we got the win which is the most important thing and now we need to do it again.”

Rovers had been winning 20-0 on the hour at Headingley, just as they had done against Hull on Good Friday only to lose 22-20.

Leeds got back to 20-10 and Cockayne continued: “We probably got a little bit vocal behind the posts. That was a defence mechanism as if to say: ‘Bloody hell, come on….’ But we held it together and defended absolutely outstandingly well. A lot of that is an attitude thing and sheer desire. We showed plenty of that.”