Giants' Opposition watch: Hull KR

Jun 5 2009 by Chris Roberts, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HULL KR are the real surprise package of Super League XIV.

Halfway through the season and the Robins are sitting second in the table, with 10 wins and a draw from their 14 top-flight fixtures.

In fact, their last League defeat was at home to the Giants on Easter Monday when coach Nathan Brown’s men secured a 30-8 victory.

Since then, Rovers have beaten Catalans Dragons and Castleford at home, Harlequins and Wigan away and Warrington at Murrayfield as part of Magic Weekend.

But in their last competitive outing Warrington gained their revenge, grabbing a thrilling 25-24 golden-point victory in the quarter-final of the Carnegie Challenge Cup at Craven Park on Saturday.

It will obviously be interesting to see how coach Justin Morgan’s men respond to that heart-breaking defeat.

Tonight, all will be revealed.

AUSTRALIAN scrum half Michael Dobson is a man on fire!

The 23-year-old former Canberra Raiders and Wigan Warriors half-back has been at the heart of the Robins’ rise up the Super League standings.

At the halfway stage of the season, Dobson is leading the way in the Albert Goldthorpe Medal table as the top performer in Super League.

He is already 10 points ahead of his nearest challenger, Giants captain Brett Hodgson.

And such has been his impact this season that there is strong talk of St Helens making a move to attract him to Knowsley Road as the replacement for Sean Long, who is leaving at the end of the season.

JUSTIN MORGAN is continuing to do an outstanding job as head coach of Hull KR.

Having already established himself as a Rovers legend for leading the Robins into Super League, Morgan is now moulding the side into a leading top-flight force.

The 33-year-old was forced to retire at the age of 26 through injury and has used his time wisely to become one of the game’s leading coaches.

He rose to prominence as a coach in 2005 by steering French side Toulouse to the Challenge Cup semi-finals before repeating the feat with Hull KR the following year and is going from strength to strength.