Apart from Hull obviously, who do you guys consider your biggest rivals after that? And who do you think considers you one of their bigger rivals?

Donny, those games used to be proper heated back in the day.

From our time in the lower leagues games v Leigh, Fev and Donny always had a bit of extra spice.

In SL, imo Huddersfield. Can't stand them

Snap can't be doing with Huddersfield, always enjoy playing Cas tho.

Warrington.

A tougher question than you might think. Pre-SL it was easy, but now its really hard to see beyond Hull for both questions. Everyone else is so far behind as to be irrelevant in rivalry terms. Its an easier question for Hull fans, as they used Leeds as a [isurrogate Rovers [/ifor years when we were fannying about in the National Leagues.

For me it's Leeds, not in terms of on-the-field because they still way ahead of us, but atmosphere and that 'big occassion' feeling, definitely them. Every match against them always feels huge, and the East Stand just has that extra passion and noise usually only reserved for Hull.

When we first played Leeds in SL (that glorious Saturday night Sky game when we beat them 22-20 IIRC

) I didn't mind them at the time and had a lot of respect for them, but since then with their dirty tactics, crowding the ref after every decision against them and nonstop whinging captain (put that gum shield back in you tw*t!

), I've developed a really strong dislike for them, and took great pleasure watching Wigan give them a beating last month.



So anyway, Leeds for me.

Might be worth watching last seasons win at Craven Park and listening to Kevin Sinfield aftermatch interview - very, very magnanimous and humble in defeat...

On the pitch though......

Leaving Hull aside then, it must be Leeds. Always a great atmosphere when we play them and feels more like a derby than any other.

Must re-iterate Huddersfield are my most disliked team, wether this is down to their success against us probably or their style of rugby possibly.

I watched that again only last weekend, and he was indeed, despite the best efforts of Bill Arthur who repeatedly tossed him an excuse only for Sinfield to rebuke it.

Cant see Leeds thinking of either Hull side as a rival TBH, Leeds/Bradford they would say; then i reckon Saints/Wigan come before either Hull side for them,

East Vs West is our derby end of, Just like wigan/saints, leeds/bradford, cas/wakey.

See, I think that sometimes. But, having moved to Leeds, and playing alongside Leeds fans and working with Leeds supporting teenagers in a school, there is a huge dislike for Hull FC there. They may pretend we don't matter much to them (because let's face it, they beat us most of the time), but if we were as successful as Wigan and Saints have been, they'd see us as a bigger rival most likely. Leeds/Saints rivalry is only fuelled by success, and when that goes so will the rivalry (you could say the same about Leeds/Bradford I suppose, that one has died down now Bradford are crap).

Interesting about Huddersfield. Not many consider them a rival. They're one of them teams that not many are that fussed about ("just another team" kinda thing).

You're right, Leeds do seem to have a strange thing about Hull, and it seems to be a bit vice versa. Over hang from the Schofield Crooks factor? I don't know.

I think with us and Huddersfield it's probably partly jealousy on our part in that they came from way further from behind the eight ball than us to become a moderately successful side. We were both in similar positions (although, as I've said I think their's was far, far worse than ours) a lot of that is to do with the fact that imo Kirklees is a progressive council and the Uncle Ken factor and that I think a lot of Rovers fans feel that if we'd had the breaks that they've had (and don't get me wrong, I don't decry them any) we'd have done better in terms of fans and revenue than they have.

I'm not sure I've expressed that all that well, I'll happily expand for fans of either team.

The team I used to hate and always wanted us to beat was Whitehaven.............simply because we never could beat them.............well away anyway.
Infact the year we went up I knew it was our year because if I remember right we went to Whitehaven and won.

No we didn't, we lost away at Whitehaven and Leigh (we put out weakened sides as it was the back end of the season)

I remember losing to Leigh as I belive that was the first time Kris welham scored a first team try or was it his first team hat trick.
But I could have sworn we beat Whitehaven at their place.

We got mullered 48-12

Wow how did I forget that.
I did have a wedding to arrange and and a honeymoon to the states to look forward to so.
But am I right about Welhams scoring in the Leigh game.

Yes, he scored after 3 minutes.

Thank god for that

Doncaster. Back in the day when they had $hithouses like Alex Fisher, "Singe the whinge", Holroyd et al playing for them

God yeah particularly the infamous game at CP in 2004 when Holdstock broke that guy's jaw.



Think that was the game when Donny players appeared to be encouraging Rovers fans onto the pitch after the game to brawl.

The maddest thing I've ever seen at an RL ground that. Ellis flicked the v's in my general direction, was going to court about it. Then he snuffed it, which was a shame, great player in his day.

Phew, wasn't sure if I was imagining the last bit because it seemed so wild/outrageous.

Remember Donny claiming that their players had just come across to the East Stand because that was when away fans used to use it too, but there was definitely argueing, gesturing etc going on between their players and our fans then.