Hull KR land League Leaders’ Shield after nervy win over Warrington

Late tries from Arthur Mourgue and Tyrone May wrapped up Hull KR’s first regular-season title since 1985 following a 28-20 win over Warrington on a tension-filled night at Craven Park.

Rovers nearly blew their chance to lift the League Leaders’ Shield in their final game of the Betfred Super League campaign as Warrington scored three second-half tries in succession to claw back a 10-point deficit to threaten a mighty upset.

But full-back Mourgue turned the tide when he intercepted a high kick and surged 80 metres to touch down with 11 minutes left on the clock, then May twisted through a gap in the visitors’ defence to effectively seal a breathless victory.

Having soared clear for much of the season, Willie Peters’ men put their fans through the wringer in the course of confirming first place, with recent defeats to Leeds and Wakefield delaying their long-awaited coronation.

They were intent on doing it the hard way once again as another abject start saw Warrington seize the first try through Josh Thewlis and raise the very real prospect of giving Wigan a shot at an improbable points chance against Leeds on Friday to wrench the title from Rovers’ grasp.

Warrington had travelled to Craven Park with seemingly little hope after losing seven of their last eight games of a wretched season, including a 34-2 humbling across the city at Hull FC last week.

But Rovers looked to have learned nothing from their abject first-half showing at Wakefield last week as they produced another distinctly below-par start.

Thewlis fired a warning when he crossed in less than two minutes after Danny Walker’s 40-20, although there was a clear knock-on in the build-up.

With just six on the clock, the Wolves were in front when Thewlis out-jumped Mourgue to meet Marc Sneyd’s clever cross-field kick.

Sneyd kicked the simplest of conversions and Warrington should have had more, another 40-20 piling the pressure back on Rovers and young full-back Cai Taylor-Wray skipping through only to be denied for an obstruction in the build-up.

Rovers unconvincingly clawed their way into the contest, Noah Booth failing to grasp a wayward pass from May, who made amends on 23 minutes by bursting through a gap and giving Rhyse Martin the chance to kick his first of four conversions.

Booth eased the evident tension by crossing twice in the last six minutes of the half, each time on the end of sweeping cross-field moves, with a further kick from Martin taking Rovers 10 clear at the interval.

But after Mourgue came close shortly after the restart, Rovers spectacularly combusted and a trio of tries from Sam Burgess’ men silenced the home fans.

Sam Stone spurted over from Ewan Irwin’s clever kick, Adam Holroyd pushed through a sluggish home defence and, after Sneyd had booted them level, Matt Dufty sent Thewlis somersaulting over for his second to give Wire the lead.

Rovers looked utterly clueless but they seized the break they badly needed 11 minutes from time when Mourgue collected Sneyd’s high kick and blazed clear over the halfway line, just about holding off two Warrington defenders to score his side’s fourth.

Martin coolly kicked Rovers into a 22-20 lead and May’s persistence was rewarded with four minutes left as Rovers finally did enough to seal the title – albeit in the knowledge that big improvements are needed in their home play-off semi-final in a fortnight’s time.