Hull KR 32-10 Wakefield Trinity: Highlights and match report

It’s been a turbulent week for Hull KR, but they ended it on a massive positive with seven tries and a win over Wakefield.

Star signing Lachlan Coote was the man who orchestrated things and inspired the Robins to a comprehensive win despite the revelation that Tony Smith will no longer be at Craven Park come the end of 2022.

Highlights:

Linnett back to his scoring ways
Last season Kane Linnett ended the campaign as the league’s top try scoring forward and today he again showed the kind of form which led him to that accolade supporting Lachlan Coote’s run to open the scoring before powering over for a second late on to wrap up the win.

Support play at its finest
Support play has always been a hallmark of Tony Smith sides and was today. The best example was Shaun Kenny-Dowall’s try which came from a Jordan Abdull break and support from Rowan Milnes with Kenny-Dowall supporting to finish.

Match Report:

There were worries that Hull KR would be rocked by the news that coach Tony Smith is set to depart at the end of the season which has been said to have caught the entire club and squad off guard.

However, they instead looked galvanised to end Smith’s era on a high this afternoon so it seems his departure could be the catalyst for something special especially the way they started today’s game storming into a 24-0 lead.

They crossed first after 11 minutes. It came from talisman Lachlan Coote who cut through the Wakefield defence to create a try for the prolific Kane Linnett. Coote converted and would do so again eight minutes later converting his own try after the Robins kept the ball alive with Ryan Hall providing the scoring pass to his fullback.

Then a lovely try: Jordan Abdull broke through Wakefield’s defence finding halfback partner Rowan Milnes in support who teed up Shaun Kenny-Dowall for the try to take the halftime lead up to 16-0.

A fourth try took them even further ahead five minutes after the break to virtually end any hope of a Wakefield comeback which was already remote at best. This one went to Ethan Ryan scoring from Ben Crooks’ cut out pass. For the second time, Coote missed the conversion.

Coote’s loss of form with the boot continued but it didn’t matter as the Robins kept scoring. Ryan scoring again this time from a Coote pass as he pulled the strings like the puppet master he is.

Wakefield pulled two back with Jacob Miller slicing Hull KR’s defence open with great skill before Trinity grabbed another consolation through a Lewis Murphy try making it 24-10.

However, that was as close as Wakefield got with Ryan Hall then grabbing his seventh try in five games. Who supplied the vital pass? Coote again but he did once again miss with the conversion and did so one last time as the man who started the scoring this afternoon – Kane Linnett – finished it with Hull KR’s seventh try of the game.