Hull derby delight for Gentle

Hull coach Peter Gentle admitted he had begun to experience flashbacks after Hull KR threatened to pull off another victory in a stirring Stobart Super League derby at Craven Park.

The Black and Whites let slip a 30-14 lead to go down 32-30 at the Magic Weekend in May and Gentle feared a similar outcome as the Robins fought back from 20-8 down to 20-18. However, Hull sealed a 32-18 win thanks to late tries from Richard Whiting and Tom Briscoe, with debutant Jamie Foster taking his goal tally to six from as many attempts.

"It was a great response to the last few weeks," Gentle said. "The boys worked their backsides off this week and we saw the results of that tonight defensively. It's the first time this year that we have based our game on our defence. We all had flashbacks when they came back but we kept our resolve."

Gentle had gambled on a new half-back partnership of Aaron Heremaia and Ryan McGoldrick in a bid to arrest their slump and he believes it promises well for the rest of the season.

"It's only in its infancy too," he said. "We'll see how that develops in the coming weeks but it's good to see we're starting to transfer what we do on the training paddock onto the field."

While Hull's victory lifted them up to sixth place, Rovers are now struggling to make the play-offs after suffering a fourth successive defeat.

"They were too good for us," said Hull KR coach Craig Sandercock. "They out-enthused in that first half. Our execution of plays was poor. We created a few opportunities but we buthered them and let them off big time.

"I thought we played a lot better in the second half and I thought we were going to sneak a win.

"Hull, to their credit, took every opportunity they had and that was the difference tonight."

Rovers' misery was compounded by the loss of full-back Shannon McDonnell with a knee injury and second rower Con Mika with a torn hamstring.