A huge week for the Super League begins on Thursday night when the beaten Grand Final side from last term Hull KR play host to a troubled Salford Red Devils to get the third round of the new campaign up and running.
Hull KR have won both of their matches so far this season but haven’t really convinced in either while Salford have been battered in both of their games and will be looking to offer up a much more competitive showing in this one.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live via the Sky Sports+ streaming service with the short build-up to the game beginning at 7.55pm ahead of the 8pm kick off at Craven Park.
Hull KR
It was always going to be interesting to see how Hull KR would respond to losing at Old Trafford last season but the early signs are that they have dusted themselves down and gained enough strength to go again despite some key turnovers in terms of players coming and going. They have played two and won them both but they were made to work very hard by Castleford Tigers in week one and just about got over the line against Wakefield Trinity last week.
We’ve seen the defensive qualities of Hull KR in both of those matches but what we haven’t yet seen is the explosive attacking play which they impressed everyone with last term, especially on this patch, and they will be hoping to progress to a position where they show that to everyone once again. That might not come readily here though because they could be without both of their first-choice half-back combination which isn’t a recipe for free flowing point scoring.
Salford Red Devils
It has been a beginning to the season to forget for the Salford Red Devils. They made a mockery of the competition in the opening week when choosing to field a reserve team at St Helens and got duly thrashed and while they were much stronger in terms of personnel last week, they were still soundly beaten by the Leeds Rhinos so the team who have reached the playoffs in the last two years need to get much more competitive than that and very quickly.
The one positive that you would say for Salford is that their back line still looks like it can do some damage. It has looked undercooked in the opening two rounds but they have been torn apart through the middle. We can’t really judge their pack on that opening game because they might have been outgunned even if they were at full strength but they had no chance with the team they put out. Last week they looked like they needed a run as a team and will hope to be so much better for it here.
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Team News
Hull KR are going to be forced into a change for this match as Mikey Lewis picked up an injury last week which will keep the Man of Steel out of action for a few weeks. Tyrone May is a doubt too but Danny Richardson is fit to play in the halves.
Salford Red Devils will also have to make a change to their squad for this one with Joe Shorrocks suspended for three matches after an illegal contact to the head in the loss to Leeds last week. Justin Sangare might get a more prominent role in his absence.
Betting
If this was a few weeks into the season you could make a case for this being a good match but at this stage of the campaign we might be in for another low scoring Hull KR match. They have just looked a little clunky in attack this season and that isn’t likely to improve too much in the absence of Mikey Lewis and certainly might not should Tyrone May not be good to go as well. In their two matches they are yet to register 20 points with those two available so points aren’t guaranteed to come readily without them.
Salford Red Devils have been poor so far this term but defensively you would imagine that their starters are going to come on for the run but whether they are going to offer much against this Hull KR defence when they have the ball in hand remains to be seen. Matches between these two in Super League in recent times have been a bit lower scoring and that is largely down to this Hull KR defence, which showed in the Grand Final last term how hard it is to penetrate. When you weigh it all up and put it into the mix I think under 37.5pts is the way to go here.
Tips
Back Under 37.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Boylesports
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