Tony Smith identifies the reason he thinks Hull KR will be difficult to deal with in 2022

Tony Smith has a proven track record of fulfilling the untapped potential of clubs in Super League.

At Leeds he took Super League’s great underachievers and sewed the seeds for the most dominant dynasty in the summer era by building the best attacking side in Super League history scoring a record 1150 points in 2005.

He then fulfilled Warrington’s silverware ambition with three Challenge Cups in four seasons and two League Leaders’ Shields in his time at the Halliwell Jones finally making the Wire serious contenders and it seems a similar transformation may be taking place at Hull KR.

Last season, under Smith’s guidance and playing an attacking brand of rugby, the Robins recorded their second highest Super League finish – sixth – and made it all the way to the semi-finals against Catalans.

It seems, based on their exploits last night in a 60-12 win away at Dewsbury, that similar success can be achieved by Hull KR in 2022 and Smith hinted at the reason why after last night’s thumping win.

Smith included a lot of size in his backline last night with Sam Wood joining the likes of Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Brad Takairangi and Ryan Hall all of whom caught the eye in 2021. Between them, they pack a sizeable punch and it seems Smith believes the size Hull KR have in the backs is a reason they’ll again prove difficult to handle in 2022.

He stated: “We’re a decent-sized team. We’ve got some good-sized forwards but we’ve got a big backline as well. There are some big human beings out there to take care of.

“The good thing is they’ve got some good skill and showed some good speed as well. They’re all good ingredients to have.”

He also noted two key performers set to cause him some headaches in 2022. Jez Litten, who spent much of last year on the bench as an impact substitute replacing Matt Parcell, and Will Tate both impressed the former Great Britain and England boss. Neither were consistently a member of Smith’s starting 13 last year but more performances like they produced last night could see them force their way into Smith’s strongest starting line-up.

On the pair he said: “Jez Litten lit the place up, didn’t he? He was sharp out of dummy-half and did some really outstanding pieces of play. We’ll learn plenty from it as well. There are some areas that we really need to brush up on and get better at. But for a first hit-out, it was pleasing.

“Will Tate, wow. Didn’t he light the place up as well? He showed some great skill with deft little passes. It was really pleasing. There was a lot that caught my eye there tonight.”

You can read all of Smith’s post match comments on Hull KR’s official website.