{"id":320428,"date":"2025-12-01T11:22:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320428\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:22:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T11:22:16","slug":"does-anyone-benefit-from-hull-krs-start-at-york-knights-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/320428\/","title":{"rendered":"Does anyone benefit from Hull KR\u2019s start at York Knights? \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

THE Super League fixtures were released last week and the Championship fixtures will be released tomorrow (Tuesday).<\/p>\n

All the fixtures are live on our website<\/a> while they are set out week-by-week and club-by-club in this week\u2019s League Express, giving our readers the chance to use those pages as posters to be used throughout the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

The opening game of the season will be York hosting Hull KR<\/a> on Thursday, February 12.<\/p>\n

It seems that the fixture compilers bowed to Hull KR\u2019s request to face York in their opening game of the season, which comes just a week before their World Club Challenge game against Brisbane Broncos at Hull FC\u2019s MKM Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve clearly looked after Hull KR to give them the best preparation to win the World Cup Challenge,\u201d said RL Commercial Managing Director Rhodri Jones in a media conferrence last week.<\/p>\n

He appeared to suggest that the Robins had requested that fixture and that the fixture compilers had complied with the request.<\/p>\n

But I\u2019m not sure that the opening game of the season will benefit York, Hull KR or Super League as a whole.<\/p>\n

The opening game of the season is always one that draws a big viewership to Sky Sports.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s opening game was Wigan v Leigh, which produced a remarkable and historic 1-0 victory for Leigh<\/a> from a golden-point field-goal scored by Gareth O\u2019Brien in the 83rd minute in front of 21,748 spectators at The Brick Community Stadium.<\/p>\n

It was an extraordinary game that kept the TV audience in a state of uncertainty right until the final hooter and set down a wonderful marker for the new season. It was no surprise that Super League played to increased attendances and greater audiences in 2025 after that opening game.<\/p>\n

It would be difficult to plan for a game as dramatic as that one to open every Super League season.<\/p>\n

The problem is, however, that a game between York and Hull KR is unlikely to be a close one.<\/p>\n

Unlike the 2025 opener, however, there may at least be a few tries, although I suspect that the large majority of them will be scored by the Robins.<\/p>\n

Will this be a good preparation to face Brisbane a week later?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not at all sure about that.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth remembering that in the Challenge Cup earlier this year, Hull KR travelled to York and defeated their hosts 44-2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I would have thought that a game against another top-six side would have been a much better option, for example a trip to Wakefield Trinity or Leigh Leopards.<\/p>\n

A tough game would surely work more to Hull KR\u2019s advantage as preparation to face Brisbane.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not sure how good it will be for York if they receive a hammering on their first game in Super League at their home ground.<\/p>\n

And if it is a one-sided opening game of the season, I can only imagine that the Sky viewers will turn off before the end and will be less inclined to watch other matches over the weekend or over the season.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, York may surprise us and give the Robins a close game.<\/p>\n

I sincerely hope they do.<\/p>\n

Sir Kevin\u2019s Challenge<\/p>\n

KEVIN SINFIELD latest 7 in 7 challenge in memory of Rob Burrow, which involves running seven ultra-marathons in seven days, begins today (Monday, December 1) with a run from Bury St Edmunds to Ipswich.<\/p>\n

The run begins at 8.40am and will be covered by BBC Breakfast. He is expected to arrive at Ipswich\u2019s Portman Road football ground at around 2.55pm.<\/p>\n

The starting points over the next six days are Cork (Tuesday), Swansea (Wednesday), Sheffield (Thursday), Workington (Friday), Dundee (Saturday) and on Sunday he will begin at Queen Ethelburga\u2019s College in North Yorkshire and finish the run at Headingley Stadium.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crazy schedule but Kevin has shown that he is up to the job.<\/p>\n

If you want to keep a check on his progress you can do so by going to the free live tracker<\/a>, which will update throughout each day, so you can stay in touch with exactly where Kevin and the team are when they are in your region.<\/p>\n

And if you wish to make a donation, you can do so here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yearbook delight<\/p>\n

FINALLY, congratulations to my colleagues Tim Butcher and Danny Spencer, who have done another amazing job with the latest edition of the Rugby League Yearbook.<\/p>\n

The new publication covers everything you could possibly want to know about the 2025 Rugby League season and it is presented beautifully as always, with great photos and superb statistics.<\/p>\n

Both Tim and Danny deserve our hearty congratulations for producing the 30th issue of the Yearbook.<\/p>\n

You can buy it now here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I hope you enjoy reading it over Christmas as much as I will.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Super League fixtures were released last week and the Championship fixtures will be released tomorrow (Tuesday). All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-320428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}