One of the games of the weekend was first up on the Saturday of Newcastle Magic Weekends as sixth placed Salford Red Devils faced a Hull KR side confounding the critics and residing in fourth spot with no indication that they intend to give up on a play-off place or even chasing the title.

The sides went into the game on level league points, KR with a far superior points difference but while a win by more than sixteen points would lift the Robins up into second place, at least temporarily, a victory for the Red Devils would see them go above their opponents and into fourth spot in the table.

The bookies were struggling to pick a favourite, giving Salford a small start on the coupon.

The tie of the round saw two sides with terrific Challenge Cup wins last weekend opened round thirteen of Super League with a Thursday evening clash as third placed Hull Kingston Rovers welcomed second place Wigan Warriors to Craven Park for a top of the table clash with second place up for grabs for the winners.

All that separated the two sides is a difference of eight points in the points difference column with KR having scored three points more than Wigan while they had conceded eleven more.

It was almost impossible to make a call between the two sides and the bookies had made KR slight favourites with their home advantage.

The two sides met om the opening weekend of the season when KR set out their stall for the season with a 27-18 win.

Fourth took on seventh as two sides tied on six points in the fledgling table met at Craven Park in the televised Friday night game with the home side installed as slight favourites with the bookies and giving the Rhinos a two point start on the handicap coupon.

With St Helens taking on bottom side Wakefield the likelihood was that either of these two sides would need a big winning margin to end the night in fourth on points difference, but both would probably settle for the top half of the table after round seven.

KR welcomed back Jordan Abdull to their line up but were without Shaun Kenny-Dowall, while the Rhinos were without Richie Myler and Nene MacDonald while they gave a debut to Luke Hooley at full back and welcomed Mikael Oledzki back into the side.

Hull KR had this week’s trip to France to take on a high-flying Catalans Dragons who were seeking a win by twenty-three or more points to go above the Warrington Wolves to the top of the table and to maintain their one-hundred-percent start to the season.

The Robins and their fans made the journey knowing that if they could enter the cauldron of the Stade Gilbert Brutus and emerge with the precious points then they would be up to fourth place in the table after the opening five rounds of the competition.

The Dragons were made the bookies favourites with home advantage but with KR having just a twelve point start on the handicap coupon there was some certainty that this would be a competitive game with the visitors having a chance of springing a surprise.

Two sides with opening round wins came together for the Thursday night televised game on Sky as the Salford Red Devils welcomed Hull KR to the AJ Bell for their first home game of the season.

The Red Devils had Burgess back in the side after he missed last week´s game against Leigh, while the visitors were without first choice goal kicker Lachlan Coote and veteran winger Ryan Hall but could call on the services of Shaun Kenny-Dowall who scored a hat-trick last time out against Wigan.

Salford were odds on for the win with the bookies, KR being given a ten point start on the handicap coupon.

The winners would spend the evening at the top of the table.

With the whole nation still buzzing from the morning´s brilliant Saints victory over the Penrith Panthers in the World Club Challenge, Hull KR and Wigan Warriors went into battle in round one of the Super League as they got their 2023 campaigns underway in Channel 4´s first televised Super League game of the year.

It was new coach Willie Peters first game in charge of the Robins, their supporters full of hope that this would be a new dawn as they took up the quest for silverware.

With one successful season under his belt, including the Challenge Cup win, Matt Peet knows that 2023 is the year he will be judged on how well he challenges the St Helens monopoly.

It was a big Craven Park turnout and a great atmosphere.

Toulouse made the trip to East Yorkshire to take on Danny McGuire´s Hull KR side knowing that a win by four points or more would lift them off the bottom of the table, and throw the challenge back to Wakefield Trinity as the battle to avoid relegation continues.

But Hull KR also had their own points agenda.

A thirty-point win would see them up to seventh in the table, putting pressure on their Black and White neighbours, but a loss would likely see them drift further from the play off places come the end of the weekend.

KR were given an eight-point handicap on the coupon, the bookies expecting them to condemn Toulouse Olympique XIII to their seventeenth loss of the season.

Hull KR faced a daunting trip to Wigan to take on a Warriors side who are still in second place despite being taken apart by the Leeds Rhinos last Thursday.

KR picked up a win over a struggling Warrington Wolves side last time out which was a big confidence boost for the side under the temporary stewardship of Danny McGuire.

The bookies couldn´t see beyond a bounce back win for the Warriors and they game the Robins a twenty-four-point start in the handicap coupon, but as we push towards settling the end of season play-off places there have been some strange results across the Super League.

Would this be one of the strange ones, the usual hordes making the journey from Hull hoped so.

The final game of the Magic Weekend was the Hull derby as two sides struggling for form did battle with the Robins taking on the Airlie Birds for local bragging rights.

A KR win by more than twenty-seven points would lift them above FC and into sixth place, a win of any description would see then seventh.

If FC could get the points, then they would be up to fifth, providing that the win was by four or more points.

Both sides were in dour form, struggling for points, and many supporters were arriving wondering whether it was possible for both sides to lose.

The last time that either side won was over a month ago, it didn´t bode well for the game that was bringing down the curtain on an excellent weekend.

The bookies were struggling to distinguish between the two sides, giving FC a two-point start on the coupon and showing KR as slight favourites despite them sacking their coach after last weekend´s loss to Toulouse and lots of changes to both sides.

On paper an intriguing tussle between fourth placed Huddersfield Giants and a Hull KR side in seventh spot, was one of three rare Sunday afternoon fixtures in Super League as the home side looked for a spot in the top half of the table and the visitors had their eye on the top three, should the Dragons slip up at Castleford.

The Robins named Elliot Minchella in the starting thirteen and Greg Richards on the bench in the only two changes to the side which lost narrowly to Saints a fortnight ago, while Innes Senior and Matty Russell were both back in the starting line-up for the Giants The Giants were slight favourites with the bookies but there was very little to choose between the sides, the big betting money was going in the Giants favour but the punters seemed to have more faith in Huddersfield than the pundits.

Following the shock announcement that Tony Smith would be leaving Hull KR at the end of the season, the Robins came into a rare Saturday afternoon game with their eyes on a potential fourth place in Super League, but they would need to defeat a Wakefield Trinity side who desperately needed a win after a couple of recent heavy defeats, to Wigan and Castleford.

The visitors had their free scoring talisman Tom Johnstone back in the side along with full back Max Jowitt and half back Jordan Abdull to give them a far more robust look.

KR had escaped with the points from a close game with Toulouse on Bank Holiday Monday and they welcomed back Lachlan Coote and utility back Sam Wood who were both absent in France.

The bookies had KR as the favourites and had given the visitors a ten-point start on the handicap coupon.

Castleford Tigers, who recorded a confident victory away at the Leeds Rhinos in their round six game, headed to Hull KR for a quarter final against a Robins side who had a close call against the Leigh Centurions before making progress themselves.

The sides currently reside in eighth and tenth places in the Super League table with the bookies slightly favouring the home side as they gave the Tigers a two-point start on the handicap coupon, but with the odds so close there really was little to choose between the sides coached by Tony Smith and Lee Radford.

In the last couple of matchups, the Tigers knocked the Robins out of the cup last season but the red and whites won the round three game in 2022 Super League.

 

What would have been a play off for the play-offs between the Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR had turned into a fight for the fifth and sixth spots and a shoot out as to who will play the Warrington Wolves, and who will face the Wigan Warriors, next weekend.

The maths was simple, a Hull KR win, or a draw after Golden Point would see the Robins face the Warriors and the Rhinos at the Wolves while a Leeds win would see a reverse of that permutation.

Both sides named their strongest available seventeens as they both looked to gain some form of momentum to take into what will be a challenging potential road to Old Trafford.

Castleford travelled to Hull KR this evening with the Roger Millward Trophy, commemorating the 1960s playmaker who graced both clubs, at stake – plus the small matter of securing a place in the title playoffs.

A win by the visitors would cement their current fifth spot and guarantee a play-off berth, while opening the prospect of a fourth place finish.

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A Rovers victory could see them leap over Leeds in sixth to take that fifth spot from the Tigers, at least until the final week.

The Leigh Centurions are still without a win in Super League 2021, and any chance of avoiding relegation looks to have long since passed, as they took on a Hull KR side who still have aspirations of a top five finish and who knew that a win in Sunday evenings game would lift them above the Black & White side of Hull.

KR were without Abdull, Quinlan and Johnson with Sims named at loose forward, Minikin on the wing and Crooks at full back while Leigh had Logan back in the centres but would miss suspended pair Ashworth and Butler.

The bookies and pundits couldn’t see past a KR win and a continuation of the Leigh misery as they gave the home side a twelve-point start.

It was sixth against eleventh as Hull Kingston Rovers played hosts to the Salford Red Devils in a truncated round nine which saw the postponement of two of tonight’s fixtures at Huddersfield and Leeds due to positive COVID tests and required self-isolations.

While the Robins couldn’t leapfrog their near neighbours Hull FC after last nights win over the Castleford Tigers, they could keep up the pressure on the black and white half of the city as both sides chase a play-off place finish.

Salford had the chance of going above Wakefield Trinity if they could secure their second win of the season by a large enough margin, but the bookies thought that unlikely, giving them an eight-point start on the handicap coupon.

Hull College Craven Park was the venue for an eight against seventh encounter between Hull KR and the Leeds Rhinos as Richard Agar went up against former Leeds coach Tony Smith with both sides looking to kick-start a season which has seen both sides with a just a single win in their opening three fixtures of 2021.

The home side gave a debut to their new signing from the Paramatta Eels, star centre Brad Takairangi, while the Rhinos welcomed back Richie Myler, Konrad Hurrell, Ash Handley, Bodene Thompson and King Vuniyayawa as they return to a much stronger looking line-up after suffering a multitude of early season injuries.

The Rhinos were penalised by six points on the handicap coupon and were clear favourites for the victory.

Two teams without a league point between them met at Hull College Craven Park with Hull Kingston Rovers taking on the Huddersfield Giants for the chance to jump up the table.

KR were eliminated from the Challenge Cup last weekend in that incredible game against Castleford Tigers which went into multiple periods of golden point extra time while the Giants progressed thanks to a big win over Leigh Centurions on Sunday afternoon.

Two evenly matched and struggling sides were ready for an exciting match for the SKY cameras.

Round eighteen saw the battle of the wooden spoon as Wakefield Trinity hosted Hull KR for a Sunday afternoon kick off.

Both sides have a twenty percent win record with Wakefield currently bottom by virtue of KR having a better points difference.

Wakefield grabbed a crucial win over the Huddersfield Giants last time out while Hull KR lost to the Castleford Tigers, both clubs having had just two days to recover from their exploits.

A win for either side would see them in tenth place in the table, Salford Red Devils were too far ahead for either side to make much of an impression on ninth spot.

A Greg Eden hat-trick  against Hull KR helped Castleford get their second win of the restarted season and end their losing streak after the shock of last week’s massive loss to Hull FC.

 

Castleford and Rovers came to this match with no play-off prospects on realistic offer and nothing to play for but pride and experience.

And both teams had a makeshift look about them as injuries and the pressure of  fixtures took their toll.

 

Rovers took to the field without head coach Tony Smith overseen them after he started a 14-day Covid isolation because he had been in contact with someone who tested positive.

And the kick-off itself was delayed by an hour after an incident on the M62 affected both teams’ travel to the stadium.