Hull Kingston Rovers reached the Challenge Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2006 with a nerve-racking 32-26 defeat of Catalans Dragons at the KC Lightstream Stadium on Thursday night.
The victory took them one step closer to their first Wembley final since they lost to Castleford 15-14 in 1986.
The last time Rovers made the semi-finals they were playing a league below Super League and were on the verge of their return to the top league after 12 years in the wilderness.
They defeated Super League’s Warrington Wolves 40-36 in the quarter-final at Craven Park in what was a major upset in front of a national TV audience on the BBC.
This time Rovers were the favourites to win the tie as they have won seven of nine homes games in 2015 and the Dragons have won only once away from the south of France all year – against bottom club Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.
In the first half it was easy to see why Rovers were the favourites. They ripped the Dragons apart and led 24-0 at one point to send their supporters into a frenzy.
Rovers opened the scoring with a brilliant try directly from a scrum. The ball quickly went to the right and fullback Kieran Dixon put right winger and former Eels favourite Ken Sio in the clear. The winger’s pace did the rest as he touched down for an excellent try. Josh Mantellato converted and the Robins led 6-0.
The Dragons were making good yardage through a big pack led by Remi Casty and backed up by Elliot Whitehead and Zeb Taia but halfback Scott Dureau was struggling to create openings and found life difficult without fellow halfbacks Todd Carney and Thomas Bosc.
Rovers extended their lead through fullback Dixon. He was put away by a brilliant off-load from on-loan forward Tony Puletua close to the Dragons’ line. Mantellato converted and Rovers led 12-0.
Mantellato was heavily involved again a few minutes later – Albert Kelly put up a towering bomb and the Italian international charged forward and timed his jump to perfection to collect the ball under pressure. Mantellato went to ground but had the speed of thought to off-load to the supporting Kelly who fought himself free from a couple of would be tacklers to score Rovers third try. Mantellato converted to make it 18-0.
Again that man Matellato had a big hand in Rovers’ fourth try of the half. Substitute hooker Shaun Lunt, returning after a two month absence with a back injury, ran the ball on the fifth tackle and threw long pass to Mantellato who charged past Krisnan Inu down the left wing. The former Newcastle Knights player then threw an inside pass to the supporting Graeme Horne to touch down. The conversion was successful and the game seemed over at 24-0.
But as we should know, things are never that simple.
The Dragons got on to the scoreboard late in the first half when former New Zealand international Inu scored his second try in two games since his return to the code from rugby union. Dureau could not convert and Mantellato kicked his fifth goal of the half, a penalty, on the half-time hooter to give Rovers a 26-4 lead at the break.
It was obvious that the Dragons would come out firing in the second half in an attempt to get back into the match and that is exactly what they did. Rovers were starting to be penalised heavily by referee Phil Bentham and the Dragons got their second try of the game on the back of a couple of penalties.
A flat pass from hooker Ian Henderson, who was having more influence on the match, saw Taia crash over with two men on him. Dureau converted and the Dragons made the Rovers faithful even more nervous when Inu touched down for his second try.
Centre Tony Gigot sold an outrageous dummy before breaking the defensive line and sending a kick through for Inu to race onto to touchdown. Dureau missed the conversion but Rovers’ lead was cut to 26-14.
Rovers had gone into their shell in the second half and were allowing the Dragons to dictate the match but the Robins did manage to increase their lead midway through the half. A sweeping move to the right saw Sio dive in at the corner and although Mantellato missed the touchline conversion, the Robins held a 16-point lead with 15 minutes left.
Unfortunately that lead did not last long. Within two minutes Henderson crashed over for a try close enough to the posts for Dureau to convert and bring the score back to 30-20.
Mantellato extended the lead to 12 points with a 75th minute penalty and, although the Dragons scored a converted try through Elliot Whitehead with just two minutes to go to send Rovers fans’ blood pressure through the roof, the Robins managed to hang on for a brilliantly exciting and tense 32-26 victory.
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