On the day, the scoreline was a pretty fair reflection of the way in which Hull KR kept plugging away, doing the basics well and taking their chances when they came. Hornets on the other hand looked terribly lightweight in comparison, conceding size up front and real guile at half-back. Indeed, the loss of Birdseye, Braddish and Goulding from scrum half has cost Hornets dearly. As the Robins' James Webster showed, a true scrum half can make a side really tick; and despite the genuinely best efforts of Dave McConnell - who had another solid, hardworking game - Goulding will be desperate to get a specialist in the shirt ASAP.

By the time Andy Gorski ran off Bowker's first decent pass to score after after half an hour, Hornets were 20-nil down. Carbon copy tries from Byron Ford (big overlap off a cut-out pass from Webster) and Gallagher strolling in by the posts doing the damage. And when Webster slotted a drop goal to stretch the margin, the Hornets faithful knew it'd be one of those afternoons.

Hornets did stiffen their resolve in the second half: Cantillon striving desperately to establish some momentum. But Rovers kept moving the ball around; and Paul Mansson's switch back to his customary out-half berth merely upped their tempo. Pick of Rovers second half tries was an 80 metre effort from Andy Raleigh - returning an intercepted Bowker drop-off pass with interest.

Amidst all of this, referee Ben Thaler bamboozled home and away fans alike with a truly surrealist interpretatin of the laws: and he helped himself to feel important dismissing Rob Ball for dissent with four minutes of the season remaining. An irritating pedant to the last.

There was still time for Makali Aizue to crash in for a try and end a difficult afternoon's viewing.

If we look for positives from every experience, I'd pick out Phil Cantillon's relentless go-forward at the helm of a well beaten side; Lee Doran's huge effort as all else fell apart around him; and Gareth Price's unquenshable desire to run the ball through a brick-wall if it's asked of him.

But everything's relative. Hull KR have spent over four times what Hornets have spent to assemble their now full-time side - and expectation levels are through the roof in East Hull. Where Hornets targeted incemental improvement as our season's goal - and achieved that - the Robins have singularly focused on getting promoted to Super League as their target. And, though Bobbie Goulding thinks Hull KR have the ability to win the Grand Final, any failure on their part would be an exponentially greater - and business critical - disappointment.

Bobbie Goulding has said that last year's target was survival; this year's was the playoffs and next year's is a home tie. I quite fancy him to deliver. But I also think we'll need to beat Hull KR on the way.