{"id":421608,"date":"2026-02-12T10:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/421608\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T10:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:31:07","slug":"super-league-york-knights-aim-to-down-champions-hull-kr-on-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/421608\/","title":{"rendered":"Super League: York Knights aim to down champions Hull KR on debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Knights help kick off the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/rugby-league\/articles\/cj4zx7q5lkro\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">newly expanded Super League,<\/a> which has lost Salford Red Devils since last season but gained three new sides in York, Bradford Bulls and Toulouse Olympique.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">York only learned they would be moving up into the top flight in October, meaning they have had to transform from a part-time to a full-time set up in a matter of months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And Harris insisted his side must ignore the &#8220;outside noise&#8221; as they head into the new campaign with little expectation from those outside the club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s for other people to either write us off or back us,&#8221; he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That is their opinion and, with all due respect, we won&#8217;t listen to good or bad. All we care about is our opinion of ourselves and our coaches&#8217; opinions of us. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So we will keep the outside noise outside and focus on what we need as a group.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Knights&#8217; coach Mark Applegarth, who has been at the club since June 2024, is another relishing the prospect of going head-to-head with established Super League coaches, including Hull KR&#8217;s Willie Peters, Warrington&#8217;s Sam Burgess, Matt Peet of Wigan and Leigh&#8217;s Adrian Lam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That is what is exciting and what drives you,&#8221; said Applegarth, who previously had a spell as a Super League head coach with Wakefield in 2023. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If you didn&#8217;t feel that you belong you are probably not in the right job. I feel like I belong there and I can do some damage there as a coach. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That is the beauty of life that you dare to dream and I firmly believe that I belong there. I have that burning desire to improve and I really can&#8217;t wait.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knights help kick off the newly expanded Super League, which has lost Salford Red Devils since last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-421608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421608","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=421608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}