Waiting is finally over for Sheens as Hull KR set for Super League

The veteran Australian coach originally thought he was joining them as a top-flight club when it was announced in September 2016 that he would leave his Salford Red Devils director of rugby role at the end of that season.

However, of course, just a few weeks later, ironically it was Salford who then condemned Rovers to relegation in the Million Pound Game and, so, Sheens spent last term plotting his way back from the Championship.

It was perhaps no surprise, looking at the World Cup-winning coach’s impressive CV, that he did so at the first attempt, beating Super League sides Leigh Centurions and Widnes Vikings in the Qualifiers.

Ex-Kangaroos chief Sheens, 67, takes charge of Rovers’ first game back in Super League when they host Wakefield Trinity on February 2, but their opening warm-up fixture is tomorrow’s visit from partner club York City Knights.

With a lack of recent activity in the transfer market, though, there are some mutterings already that the Robins will face a difficult task in handling their return to the elite.

Yet such talk does not concern in the slightest Sheens who, having signed players of Justin Carney, Mose Masoe and Lee Jewitt’s ilk to bolster their promotion push, had already laid much of the squad platform for 2018.

With the subsequent capture of Leeds Rhinos captain Danny McGuire, Super League’s greatest-ever try-scorer and man-of-the-match in last season’s Grand Final, you can certainly understand why there is no panic from the Craven Park inner sanctum.

“We have a good squad in terms of numbers and we’re expecting a few players to really come through this year,” he said, with a raft of their promising youngsters set to feature against York.

“We’re not finished with our recruitment either. I think we’re well covered in all the key positions, but we still have one or two more players to come in.

“There’s people like Masoe and Carney and then there’s Danny McGuire leading the side around so there’s plenty of positives.

“Overall, if we get a decent bounce of the ball, the odd referee call going our way and we look after our own, we give ourselves a good chance of getting in that top eight and that’s all we’re targeting for starters.

“I don’t really worry about what others are doing; I’m not concerned with who they’ve recruited or what people say about them. It’s what we’re doing that matters.

“Some people won’t give us a chance of avoiding the bottom four and that’s fair enough. We have to earn that right and earn that respect, but that’s what we intend to do.”

For all Rovers successfully negotiated life in the second tier, both on and off the field, they will be doing their utmost to make sure they do not suffer the same fate again.

“It’s simple really; we have to win enough games to get in that top eight and avoid the Qualifiers,” added Sheens.

“Clearly there’s processes to go through to make sure we do that and there’s plenty of hard work and good management, too, particularly with injuries.

“Hopefully we don’t get too many of those this season. You can handle the soft tissue ones, but anything ligament – shoulder, knee – we’ll be hoping to avoid.

“But we need to win enough to stay out of that bottom four and make sure we don’t put ourselves under the threat of relegation.

“We’ll be taking it all day to day, though, and game by game this year, concentrating on ourselves and not worrying about anyone else.”

With eight-time Grand Final winner McGuire running Rovers from half-back, Rovers have an experienced head to guide them.

On the former Great Britain star, Sheens commented: “Danny’s a winner. He is so professional, too, in everything that he does.

“The only sessions he’s missed in pre-season are the ones we’ve asked him to stand down from.

“He has worked so hard and that gives you an idea of the sort of player we have with us here. We’re very happy with Danny.

“We need to look after him and make sure he gets through another long season, but we are very, very pleased.

“I’m a firm believer that a good pre-season leads to a good season and Danny has had a really good pre-season.”

McGuire, 35, will debut tomorrow along with the club’s other main new recruits.

Those just include so far Tommy Lee, the much-travelled former Hull FC, Wakefield and Huddersfield hooker who arrives from St Helens, and ex-Salford forward Jordan Walne.

Exciting teenage full-back Will Dagger, for whom Rovers paid an undisclosed fee to Warrington Wolves, also gets a run-out along with Nabil Djalout, the France international currently on trial in east Hull.

The game serves as a testimonial for Ben Cockayne, the Robins legend whose second spell with the club came to an end – on the playing side, at least – after helping them earn promotion for a second time.

The popular full-back, 34, lines up for York instead and Sheens said: “It’s a pleasure to be able to do something for him.

“He’s started work this week for the club on the commercial side and he’s playing for York – our dual-registration partners – this season, too, along with Graeme Horne, so he’s not lost to us altogether.

“They’ll both be looking after the young players we send York’s way so it’s great to have him there like that and we’ll be watching all their games.

“We’ve not got our full squad in yet and we’ve still got some issues with regards injuries and post-season surgeries.

“But it is a strong squad nonetheless for game one.”

Australian full-back Adam Quinlan makes his return from injury but there is no captain Shaun Lunt or Maurice Blair yet.

Young Rovers hooker Will Jubb, who has agreed a one-year contract with York along with Jake Butler-Fleming, is included in the City Knights squad.