Leeds-Bradford or Saints-Wigan; that’s how the arguments always went when the topic of the game’s greatest derby match was raised.
But now, whether it is more intense to cross the M62 or Billinge Lump may be becoming irrelevant. There’s a new derby on the engage Super League scene. The Battle of the Humber.
Hull FC have today confirmed the game as a 23,000 sell-out; a massive attendance that will have the KC stadium rocking.
And it may have come at just the wrong time for the red’n’white army that is assaulting the early round of this season’s competition. For whilst the black’n’whites are just stirring from their early season slumber with victory over the Saints, the Robin’s startling start to Super League XII looks like it may be faltering. A lacklustre performance at Warrington on Sunday will be backed-up by a daunting visit to St Helens this Friday.
Couple that with injuries to skipper James Webster and loose-forward Tommy Gallagher and the omens look bleak for the Robin faithful.
But they’ll not let that deter them as they prepare to scale the halls of their ‘hated’ cross-city rivals. And anyone who can remember the supercharged battles of the mid-eighties will know that the KC will be no place for the faint-hearted … or the neutral.
So, thank goodness for SKY Sports who give us the chance to see for ourselves in safety whether Hull (Easter Monday) will outdo Bradford (Thursday) and Wigan (Good Friday) in hosting the spiciest derby of Super League XII.
ibridge
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