Hull KR

Crowd trouble footage emerges following St Helens’ defeat to Hull KR

by
Sam Cook
May 5, 2024

Hull KR confirmed themselves as genuine Super League title contenders after following up a dominant win over Wigan Warriors with an even better win over St Helens, but sadly crowd issues have marred the day.

Willie Peters’ side won 40-20 at a sunny Craven Park to confirm their status as genuine challengers. The win also meant incredibly that the top six in Super League are all level on 14 points.

St Helens had conceded just 70 points in their nine Super League games before meeting KR, meaning that the dominant 40-20 win for Hull KR showcased what a statement win that it was from Hull KR.

The victory was played out in front of a packed-out Craven Park with Sky Sports reporting the attendance as 10,500 with St Helens having sold out their away allocation of 800 tickets, but it was clashes between the fans that put a dampener on what was a great game.

Crowd problems between St Helens and Hull KR fans mar incredible game

Credit: Imago Images

The footage of the crowd issues emerged on social media and it showed stewards having to prevent St Helens fans from moving towards Hull KR fans. It’s unclear what sparked the incident but the footage doesn’t make for great viewing with the RFL potentially keen to watch it and determine if any punishments should be handed down.

Hull KR were punished in the first game of the season against Hull FC on account of crowd issues last year. That opening night clash against Hull FC saw KR fans have their ticker purchases limited with a smaller allocation granted after issues between the two sets of fans last year.

The RFL had also administered punishment to the club last season following issues, however, in this instance, it is unclear which set of fans are the instigators with the stewards seen to be trying to prevent St Helens fans from approaching the home fans. That footage can be seen in the embedded post at the bottom of the article.

In regards to the game, it was an absolute cracker with the first-half being an end-to-end display of attacking rugby and somewhat poor defence. The home side opened the scoring after Tyrone May latched onto a Mikey Lewis kick before Saints hit back through Jack Welsby and Konrad Hurrell.

An Elliot Minchella break was met with the supporting Mikey Lewis finishing the score off but Hull KR allowed Saints back in straight through poor defence as Waqa Blake scored in the corner. Debutant Jack Broadbent would restore the lead for the Robins before halftime though.

From that point onwards, Hull KR never really looked back with Peta Hiku and Jez Litten scoring early in the second half to stretch the lead to 28-14. Despite a second for Konrad Hurrell, the home side remained in charge and late scores from the brilliant Dean Hadley and Ryan Hall make it 40-20.

It marked the 246th Super League try of Hall’s career leaving him one short of Danny Maguire’s record, whilst it also was the first time that St Helens had conceded 40 since Round 21 of the 2022 season.