Rovers’ Robinson glad of rare match action
Halifax’s decision to call up the Hull KR hooker Connor Robinson on dual-registration rescued the young number nine from “a dark place”. Robinson became the first Rovers player to turn out for Fax under the ‘partnership’ agreement between the sides when he came off the bench in last Friday’s 14- 8 win at Hunslet.
With Ryan Maneely on the injured list and loan recruit Danny Craven recalled by Widnes, coach Richard Marshall turned to Robinson to bolster his side’s playmaking options, giving the player - who has made one Super League appearance in 2015 - a rare match appearance.
“I’m too old for under 19s rugby at 20 years old, so it’s finding somewhere where I can go and play at a good level,” said Robinson, who spent a month with lowly Coventry earlier in the year.
“Hopefully now I’ve played I have done enough to stay in the team and I can come back next weekend and play at Dewsbury.
“It’s disheartening sometimes; You go training, give your all, but you’re not playing in matches.
“I’ve been in a dark place for about three months now, but as soon as I heard I was coming over here I was a different bloke.
“I was bouncing all over, just knowing I was going to be playing at the weekend.
“I had a month at Coventry, which was interesting and hard work; it’s a 280-mile round trip so I was getting home at 1.30am after training.
“That’s not the same level; I didn’t really have to worry about anyone else but myself at Hunslet, because I knew if I got my game right, everyone around me would be doing what they needed to do.
“With Scotty (Murrell) and Ben Johnston organising, they sort their edges out and I just do my job in the middle.
“I thought I’d have been a bit rusty, but when you’ve got players outside you like those two it makes it a lot easier.”
Robinson looked sharp around the ruck and showed a strong second half kicking game as Fax took the points at the South Leeds Stadium courtesy of Johnston’s late touchdown.
“We knew it was going to be a bit of an arm wrestle, but we also knew that if we stuck in there we’d come out the other side,” said Robinson. “We spoke about it; winning at Featherstone the week before would have meant nothing if we’d gone to Hunslet and not got the result we wanted.”
The question was asked on the way back from Featherstone the other Saturday; when was the last time that both wingers scored hat-tricks in a Halifax victory?
Club historian Andrew Hardcastle came up with the answer that it was when Halifax played Eccles in the Challenge Cup in 2007 and Lee Greenwood scored four tries and Marcus George three.
Examples against a professional team are harder to come by and Dewsbury, where Halifax travel on Sunday, are the team who seem to have suffered most.
The ultimate example is the match at Thrum Hall on 9th Nov 1957, when Halifax won 62-2 with right wing Keith Williams scoring eight tries and left wing Johnny Freeman a mere five!
In the return fixture at Crown Flatt a few weeks later, on December 14th, Williams and Freeman scored three tries apiece.
Fax “only” won 39-4 that day.
And when they next played Dewsbury, away on September 27 1958, Williams helped himself to another four.
Halifax scored 16 tries in total that autumn Saturday afternoon through Williams (8), Freeman (5), Palmer, Briers and Renilson with the latter kicking seven goals.
If Renilson had improved all of the tries then the final score would have been 80-2, an incredible score for the period.