Stats don’t lie, Rovers’ season is unravelling
Hull KR produced another dismal performance against Huddersfield Giants in their 38-10 defeat by the West Yorkshire outfit. It’s no surprise the statistics paint a familiar picture, with missed tackles and some poor individual efforts in attack leading to another heavy beating.
It’s the defence once again that needs to be critiqued and will undoubtedly come under scrutiny by Tony Smith during the video sessions this week.
The Robins missed 41 tackles as a team, and some of the defensive reads gifted Huddersfield tries.
At the moment, it seems as soon as a side creates a shift play against the Robins, the flanks have the tendency to jump in far too quickly, exposing the flanks and giving their opponents an overlap which more times than not, leads to a try.
Looking at some individual efforts, it was an uncharacteristic off day for captain Shaun Kennydowall, who missed five out of his 12 tackles and only made 69 metres in attack.
Albert Vete struggled again off the bench, with only 42 metres from six carries, and Greg Richards only managed 40 as the replacement props failed to make an impact and were passengers for the majority of their time on the field.
The blunt fact is that Rovers prop forwards, barring Matty Storton and George King, are not at a level that is good enough for what this club wants to achieve.
Even if you drop Vete and Richards, Korbin Sims and Will Maher are next in line, and from what the pair have shown during their time at Rovers, they aren’t going to change how the interchanges affect the contest drastically.
Take the Huddersfield contest. The Giants had 45 fewer carries than the Robins, but still managed to make over 400 more metres than the hosts, which is an alarming statistic in itself.
Plenty of people will say it could be too early, but Rovers have five up-and-coming forwards in Nathan Cullen, Leo Tennison, Zack Fishwick, Tom Wilkinson and Connor Moore, and it could be time to see one or two of the prospects filter into the matchday squad and get some minutes off the bench.
Although his side struggled defensively, Ethan Ryan found joy with the ball in hand. The outside back topped the metres chart with 203 to his name.
Dean Hadley and Frankie Halton’s contributions went unnoticed due to the magnitude of the defeat, as the hardworking forwards made 67 tackles between them and carried the ball in 27 times for their side.
As much as statistics only tell you so much, the overall picture is that Hull KR’S 2022 is unravelling in front of everyone’s eyes, and the freeflowing ad-lib style of rugby league that’s become accustomed to this side is non-existent at the moment.
So if Rovers want to reach the play-offs at the back end of the year, their problems on the field will have to be resolved as soon as possible.