Match 19: Hull Kingston Rovers (Home)fevnut's musings
Blackpool
So, Leon Pryce has decided to retire. He once
infuriated the Aussies by telling them that he preferred Blackpool to Bondi.
Much as I enjoyed watching Leon playing I couldn’t disagree with him more. Mind
you I have never been to Australia let alone Bondi Beach but I couldn’t
possibly like it less than I like Blackpool. I first went there for a Union
conference and I loathed the place! Then I went to a Labour Party conference at Blackpool and loathed it even more.
Since then, the only thing that has ever got me to return has been to watch my
beloved Fev and after three visits to the Summer Bash I think I would rather go
to Castleford than Blackpool!! Last Saturday was AWFUL. Well, not quite as
awful as the year before but it was getting on that way. What is it that makes
us play so poorly at the seaside. We seemed to be totally uninspired and for
me, that has to be down to the halfbacks and hookers. They have played and
combined really well in many games this year but on Saturday we seemed to be totally
devoid of any creativity. The only bright spot was John Davies who has been a
joy all year. But even John can’t get us a win when simply nothing is being
created. One thing really worrying is that it seems that when we are failing to
play well in attack our defence seems to fall apart and that has to be a matter
of mentality. It’s what happened to us in the Qualifiers last year and I hoped
that this year we might have the strength of character to overcome such
problems. People have said that we seem to play at our worst when we are in
front of the Sky cameras but that can’t be the answer because we put in a tremendous
team performance in front of the cameras just a fortnight before. I don’t
understand it but I desperately hope that Jon Sharp does because he has to put
it right very quickly with our next three games being against Hull KR, Bradford
(who played really well against Hull KR in Blackpool) and Leeds Rhinos who are
sitting 3rd in Super League. There are a lot of tough matches coming up - we
need the team to be creative and mentally tough.
With the top four places in the Championship
now clearly between just 5 teams we have included in the blog a listing of the
remaining fixtures for those 5 teams. In the page list on the right hand side
the link is entitled ‘Top Five:
Remaining Fixtures‘.
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ANDY KAIN
We mentioned earlier the retirement of Leon Pryce. Well, Andy
Kain also announced his retirement this last week. I feel quite glad about that
because I have loved watching Andy play but when he was playing for Dewsbury at
Fev this month he seemed to be such a pale shadow of the player who played for
us for many years. Under the coaching of Daryl Powell, that halfback
partnership of Andy Kain and Liam Finn was a huge factor in the league success
topping the table four years in a row.
It was a great halfback partnership in true Rovers tradition
with the intelligence of Liam and the cheeky, inspirational and lightning fast
play of Andy.
Many will know that with 128 tries Andy lies fourth in the list
of all time Rovers try scorers. What many of you will not be aware of is that
he scored more hat tricks for Fev than any other player in our history. Paul
Newlove lies in second place on that list with eight but Andy crossed the line
three times or more on eleven separate occasions.
So, in retiring I wish Andy all the best for his future and want
to express gratitude for the huge enjoyment in watching him play over the years
he was with us. And when I go to Toulouse at the end of July I will also
remember the attempts of Fev fans and players to keep him under control at ‘The
Melting Pot’ on one of our previous visits!
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