Hull KR suffered a triple blow in today’s game against Catalans Dragons.
By halftime they had lost three players to head injuries with all three players failing their Head Injury Assessments.
Dean Hadley, Frankie Halton and star man and Man of Steel leaderboard front runner Jordan Abdull were all ruled out for the second half so for the first time in Super League history the 18th man was activated allowing Will Dagger to come onto the field.
It is good news for Wakefield Trinity who host them on Friday next week.
It was the worst possible start for Hull KR in France. As they attacked, Catalans intercepted with the always reliable Tom Johnstone finishing off a breath taking break and scoring a lovely break away try which was converted by Adam Keighran.
The Dragons were heaping the pressure on the away side and at one stage Lachlan Coote was called into cover a grubber kick that could have yielded a try overwise.
The pressure kept coming and by the 17th minute Catalans were in again as Tyrone May’s grubber caused disarray and Tom Davies touched won. That made it 10-0
Hull KR perhaps should have scored when Ryan Hall found space and turned the ball inside for Sam Wood but he couldn’t take the pass. Then on the other edge Louis Senior couldn’t ground Mikey Lewis’ grubber so it remained 10-0 at the break.
Early in the second half Arthur Mourgue missed a penalty striking the uprights but by the 50th minute Catalans led 16-0, a second for Johnstone as he raced away to score but there was a hint of a knock on in the build up.
Hull KR needed a swift response and it came three minutes later as Jez Litten broke and found Rowan Milnes in support to score: 16-6.
Back in the game but only for 10 minutes as Tom Johnstone would go on to complete his hat-trick in the 63rd minute after a long range pass that took the Dragons out to a 20-6 lead.
They extended that advantage shortly after as Julian Bousquet crashed over.
Late on Tiaki Chan was sin binned for a shoulder charge and Ryan Hall crossed in his absence but it was too little too late and the Dragons remain unbeaten and joint top of the Betfred Super League.
