A look at some talking points from Saturday’s 48-12 win over Bradford Bulls
12:05, 26 Apr 2026Updated 12:07, 26 Apr 2026
Hull KR’S Mikey Lewis celebrates scoring a try at Bradford Bulls
Hull KR climbed into the Super League play-off spots on Saturday as thumped Bradford Bulls 48-12 at Odsal.
The Robins are starting to find the type of formidable form that took them so far last year and Saturday’s clash, albeit against a depleted Bradford side, demonstrated that as they kick on towards the top of the division.
Here’s a look at a few talking points to emerge from the clash.
Momentum building
After a rocky start to the Super League season, Willie Peters’ side finally have the head of steam they’ve been looking for.
The champions struggled for traction over the opening couple of months, but they have now won five on the bounce in all competitions and right now, while performances haven’t been completely flawless, they’re making strides towards returning towards their imperious best.
Rival fans will point to the opponents KR have faced over this spell, with injury-hit St Helens and Hull FC providing the toughest challenges before clashes against York Knights in the cup, Toulouse Olympique and Bradford.
Rovers can only beat what’s put in front of them, though, and they’ve hardly put a foot wrong in doing so. That’s more than what some clubs have managed in this bizarre but intriguing season of Super League.
Message to McDermott
It didn’t go unnoticed that Mikey Lewis’ best performance of the season came just days after Brian McDermott was appointed to take England into this autumn’s World Cup.
McDermott was formally announced on Thursday morning and in the press conference that followed he spoke about Jake Connor and George Williams, underlining that both men are in his thoughts at this moment in time.
That was before Williams was sidelined indefinitely with a neck issue that could bring his Super League season to a premature end.
However, Lewis sent a message to the new England boss by scoring four in the Odsal sunshine and dominating the contest to power the Robins to victory. His challenge is to carry that form into the rest of the season now, but if he can build on that and find a rhythm, he’ll surely be heading down under with England in the autumn.
Return hopes
Willie Peters was forced to make changes on Saturday with Oliver Gildart and Joe Burgess dropping out of the fold.
Gildart picked up an ankle injury last week at Toulouse Olympique and wasn’t included in the travelling squad, meaning Rhyse Martin started at centre and the Papua New Guinea international partnered Noah Booth on the left edge.
That’s because Burgess has been struggling with illness and Peters made the decision to let him sit out of Saturday’s contest.
The hope is that both men will be back for Thursday’s clash with Castleford Tigers, though and it won’t be too long until Arthur Mourgue is back in the fold either, to give KR what would be something close to a clean bill of health.
Bigger games on the way
Castleford are nothing if not unpredictable this season and very few saw their win over Wigan Warriors coming a fortnight ago. Rovers will be big favourites, though, and with all due respect to Castleford, they really should be beating the Tigers fairly comfortably.
KR will be taking one game at a time, of course, but once the clash with Castleford is out of the way, Rovers have three or four of their biggest games of the season coming up.
The Robins play Warrington Wolves in the Challenge Cup semi-final in two weeks and they go straight from that game into league clashes with Leigh Leopards and Wigan Warriors before potentially playing in the cup final. Leigh are getting players back now and seem to be building form themselves and Wigan are Wigan.
KR are in a good place right now but we’ll know a lot more about them after the next few weeks.