Cooke serves up derby treat
Hull Kingston Rovers tightened their grip on fourth place in Super League with a 24-18 victory in the 208th Hull derby.
Last Updated: 25/07/09 8:04pm
Former Hull favourite Paul Cooke scored two tries as Hull KR tightened their grip on fourth place in the Super League with a 24-18 victory in the 208th Hull derby.
The 28-year-old stand-off touched down in each half and also set up a try for Michael Dobson, as Rovers claimed their 95th derby victory.
Hull battled bravely but Rovers just about deserved the points, although they also enjoyed the run of the ball at some crucial moments.
The Robins look set for a useful play-off position but a fifth straight away defeat leaves the Airlie Birds' post-season hopes rapidly diminishing.
Rovers shot out of the blocks and quickly established a 12-0 lead inside five minutes.
After probing away at the Hull line, on the fifth tackle Shaun Briscoe sent up a high bomb and with the Hull defence in disarray, Cooke collected.
The former Hull star still had plenty to do under pressure from two tacklers, but before his ball-carrying arm hit the ground he popped up a pass for Dobson to score, with the Australian also adding the extras.
Moments later Cooke turned provider and scorer all in one, but he was greatly helped by the poor defensive work of Jordan Tansey.
The 22-year-old former Leeds star - back in Super League after a brief spell down under in the NRL - was completely bamboozled by Cooke's towering kick. He allowed it to bounce, it ricocheted into the upright and Cooke was on hand to collect and score under the sticks on his 50th start for Rovers.
Rovers continued to dominate but errors began to creep into their attacking play - they were not helped by the disruption caused by losing Briscoe to a concussion - and Hull gradually got a foothold in the game.
Video referee
They should have scored when Tansey made a break and put Mark Calderwood over, but the video referee ruled his ball-carrying arm had hit the ground in the tackle from Peter Fox before the pass.
Hull's gameplan seemed to be to offload as often as possible but they came up against a ferocious Rovers defence that continued to dominate the play-the-ball.
The visitors also survived a number of scares, the most notable when Ben Galea knocked on just five metres from their line.
Hull needed to score before half-time to re-ignite the contest and they did just that with four minutes to the hooter.
The try was scored by Tansey - redeeming himself for his earlier error - although much of the credit must go to Richard Horne for his perfectly-weighted grubber kick into the full-back's arms. Danny Tickle added the conversion and Hull headed for the sheds just 12-6 in arrears.
Rovers quickly edged further ahead when Mike Burnett was penalised for not releasing and Dobson slotted the kick.
The rest of the second half was a rollercoaster affair but Rovers just managed to keep their noses in front.
Shaun Berrigan's 40-20 set up a try for Craig Hall from Tansey's neat grubber, and Hull could have gone ahead moments later only for Peter Fox to dislodge the ball from Richard Whiting's hands as the Hull man was in the action of touching down for a try.
On 56 minutes Rovers came up with a 40-20 of their own and again it led to a try. Dobson fired into the corner and five tackles later Cooke spun over from dummy half to score - much to his delight - in front of the Hull supporters.
Superb
Back roared Hull with a superb score as Calderwood touched down after a wonderful width of the pitch move following Raynor's cut inside from the opposite wing. Tickle converted and the score was 20-18.
Moments later Hull were again unluckly not to edge ahead but this time they had referee Richard Silverwood to blame.
Raynor and Craig Hall exchanged passes on the left wing and Raynor was set to score under the posts only for the referee to rule the final pass forward.
Within a minute Rovers had stretched the lead again, Fisher's break up the middle on the fifth tackle setting up Webster to score.
Dobson missed the kick, but Rovers were able to hang on to their six-point advantage and retain the bragging rights over their rivals.
