They are not quite there yet, but the celebrations at full\u00a0time here in east Hull told you everything you needed to know: the second part of an unpre\u00adcedented treble is practically done and dusted.<\/p>\n
It is to Hull FC\u2019s immense credit and the work they have done under John Cartwright this year that they have undoubtedly closed the gap on their great rivals. Hull KR had to work for every inch of a high-octane and often ill-tempered derby win. But the result remains the same: as does the way we arrived at a sixth successive triumph in this game for the Robins.<\/p>\n
In the more crucial moments, and in the fine margins this game often throws up, it was the team wearing red and white who were the stronger and, in this instance, the more clinical when it mattered. That has been the story of their season \u2013 and why they have almost two hands clasped on the League Leaders\u2019 Shield.<\/p>\n
From this point only a mathe\u00admatical miracle will prevent Hull KR from finishing top of Super League for the first time. Having not won a trophy for 40 years before this \u00adseason, the Robins are closing in on two in a matter of months after securing the \u00adChallenge Cup<\/a> this summer. But the one they really want, to complete the\u00a0treble, is now where their attention turns.<\/p>\n Having come up short in the grand final<\/a> last season, Rovers are \u00adfavourites to go one step further this year. They showed their credentials again here in a derby that was punctuated by big disciplinary moments and just enough flashes of brilliance in attack to hold their fiercest rivals at bay again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough and we knew it would be,\u201d Willie Peters, the Hull KR<\/a> coach, said. \u201cWe made it tough for ourselves with completion but we knew what FC team would turn up. It wasn\u2019t a great game to watch but we got there in the end. Overall, it was scrappy.\u201d Scrappy is a fair assessment, especially when you consider there were only four points scored by the break.<\/p>\n They went the way of Rovers after a fine piece of play led to Noah Booth crossing in the corner, but for the rest of the half the Black and Whites did a good job of holding the Robins at arm\u2019s length. Crucially though, they were unable to take advantage of any of their attacking positions at the other end and against Super League\u2019s best defensive side, that is a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n They continued to apply themselves well after the break and got the try they deserved through Tom Briscoe. But by the time he had crossed, so too had Jack Broadbent and the outstanding Jez Litten for the Robins to make it 14-4 with just minutes remaining. It was, in the end, mere consolation for a Hull side unable to find the winning solution against their rivals.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m very frustrated, especially in the first half where we couldn\u2019t seem to get out of our own end,\u201d Cartwright said of his Hull side.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n That second half was perhaps more notable for ill-discipline, with three players receiving yellow cards: and it could have been more. First, Hull\u2019s Yusuf Aydin was sent to the sin-bin for a hip drop that could leave him in trouble with the RFL\u2019s disciplinary\u00a0panel.<\/p>\n Hull KR\u2019s captain, Elliot Minchella, then followed him after a \u00addangerous tackle on the Hull youngster Lewis Martin before Jordan Rapana was also sent to the sin-bin in the \u00adclosing stages. FC prop Jack Ashworth may yet be cited too after attacking the head of Mikey Lewis, a moment which left Peters unimpressed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a derby and things can happen, but some of the things out on the field were not part of the derby,\u201d he said. His side rounded off the scoring late on with Tom Davies\u2019s try which assured another derby win and one more step towards more history for a club fast becoming one of the game\u2019s elite sides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are not quite there yet, but the celebrations at full\u00a0time here in east Hull told you everything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-121660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}