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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Mikey Lewis inspired by past master for Hull KR's tilt at Challenge Cup glory as they bid to end 40-year trophy drought at Wembley
When Mikey Lewis was awarded a new shirt number by Hull KR at the start of the season, he was so proud he decided to get it tattooed on his neck in Roman numerals. There was just one problem. 'I sent the wrong number to the tattooist,' admits a sheepish Lewis, when Mail Sport asks why he has IV (four) inked on his skin instead of VI (six). 'When I had it done, I knew straight away. I didn't say anything to anybody until someone noticed it - and then I had a back-up story. Luckily for me, my birthday is on the fourth, so I fall back on that! 'It doesn't really bother me now. It is embarrassing and you get the mick taken out of you. But you've got to laugh about it because it's going to be there for a long time!' That Lewis wanted the No6 etched permanently on his body does, though, show just how much it means to him to wear a shirt that had been retired since Hull KR legend Roger Millward died, aged 68, in 2016. The Robins' record try-scorer captained the club to their only Challenge Cup win in 1980 and coached them to their last top-flight title and major trophy in 1985. Last year, Carol Millward gave permission for her late husband's No6 jersey to be unretired and passed on to the 'worthy' Lewis, who was named the 2024 Man of Steel for leading KR to the Grand Final. Now, the homegrown half back wants to emulate 'Roger the Dodger' - by winning the Challenge Cup at Wembley. 'When Carol said she wanted me to wear the number, and that I had similar traits to Roger when he played, I was very emotional,' says Lewis ahead of Saturday's showdown with Warrington Wolves. 'It was a massive honour for her to compare me to him and I want to do the shirt proud and hopefully win some silverware in it. Hopefully with him looking down, he can spur us on and see me lift that trophy in his shirt.' Super League leaders Rovers are favourites to beat Sam Burgess' Wolves, having triumphed 31-12 against them in the Super League a fortnight ago. And local lad Lewis can only imagine the scenes if KR were to end their 40-year trophy drought. 'If were to win silverware, I think it'll be a bank holiday week!' he laughs. 'Nobody will be going to work. It'd be mayhem in east Hull. Absolutely carnage. It means so much to the fans and they've waited so long. It's time to pay them back now.' Lewis believes his team will be motivated by the memory of their heartbreaking defeat in the Challenge Cup final two years ago, when they lost to Leigh Leopards on golden point. 'It was devastating playing in my first Challenge Cup final and losing in extra-time,' says the 23-year-old. 'But we can learn a lot from that and I feel like we have. 'I feel like we're more ready for the bigger games now. I feel like we've been building over the last couple of years to try and achieve this. Hopefully this time around, we can get over the line. 'It's all up for grabs this season. We're got to keep putting the performances in every week so at the backend of the year we can hopefully lift the League Leaders' Shield and get to the Grand Final again.' No player has been more instrumental in the Robins' recent resurgence than Lewis. He joined KR shortly when he was 17 and made his debut for the first team aged 18 in 2019. After loan spells at Newcastle Thunder and York Knights, he established himself at Craven Park in 2022, making his England debut against Tonga the following year. Such success, however, was unthinkable when Lewis was 15 and rejected by the now defunct City of Hull Academy, from which Hull KR and Hull FC used to pick players. 'I'm very proud of the journey I've been on,' he says. He has joked that winning the Challenge Cup would lead to a bank holiday week in east Hull 'I always wanted to be a professional player, but I wasn't the fittest and I fell out of love with the game when I was around 15. 'I was 95 per cent sure that I was going to quit and try and find something else in life to do. But my mum and dad told me some home truths and got me to fall in love with the game again. 'I really sorted myself outside - started eating better, started going to the gym and really saw myself change. I saw my game go upwards and the rest is history.' While Lewis is now KR's talisman, he actually grew up as a fan of their rivals on the other side of the city. 'Coming from west Hull, all my family were Hull FC,' he admits. 'My dad's best mate was Paul King who played for Hull FC, so I used to travel to watch them home and away until I was about 13, 14. It's all I knew. 'My brother Owen is still a season-pass holder. The derby is a funny one because I won't speak to him! But my mum and dad support me and Hull KR now. My dad has fully converted. He probably wouldn't want me to say this, but he's in the East Stand every week, singing and on the drink! He loves it.' Lewis insists he will never now swap the red and white for black and white. One move that does interest him, however, is to Australia's NRL. 'That's a dream of mine,' he says. 'I've watched it since I was a kid and every player wants to test themselves against the best. But I'm happy where I am at the moment and it's unlikely it'll change for a long time.' That is partly because Lewis now has more than just himself to think about, having recently become a father for the first time. 'I feel like it's really, really changed me,' adds Lewis about his son Romey, who was born in April. 'I've really matured. I can't just do stuff like a normal 23-year-old can do now. 'It gives me another reason why I want to do well in my career. I've been doing it for my parents but I'm doing it for him now as well. When he grows up, I want him to have images of his dad lifting silverware.' Such as the Challenge Cup at Wembley on Saturday.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
‘Every moment matters': Hull KR bidding to end 40 years of hurt in Challenge Cup final
For a while around the 1980s, it must have felt like the good times were never going to end for Hull KR: Challenge Cup winners in 1980; winners of the old Premiership in 1981 and 1984; champions of England in 1979 and then again in 1984 and 1985. Legends like Roger Millward, Gavin Miller and George Fairbairn – men who are still revered on one side of Hull to this day – at the heartbeat of one of the finest sides in British rugby league's history. But then, nothing. Darkness. One final defeat became two; two became three. There was relegation to the second division twice and then, in 1995, into the third tier 10 years on from their finest hours. Crowds dwindled to under 2,000 and Rovers flirted with administration and financial disaster on more than one occasion. But in recent years under Willie Peters, they have re-emerged as one of the game's leading forces, making the Challenge Cup final in 2023 and last year's Super League Grand Final. Saturday's meeting with Warrington at Wembley in the cup final will be their third major final in as many years, but for all of the good surrounding Rovers, the one thing is missing to cement this squad's legacy is a piece of silverware. For 40 years, Hull KR have failed to win a major trophy; a point of ridicule on the west side of the city, and an agonising drought on the other. Warrington Dufty; Thewlis, King, Tai, Lindop; Williams, Sneyd; Vaughan, Powell, Yates, Holroyd, Fitzgibbon, Currie. Interchange Ratchford, Crowther, Philbin, Harrison. Hull KR Broadbent; Davies, Hiku, Batchelor, Burgess; Lewis, May; Sue, Litten, Waerea-Hargreaves, Hadley, Whitbread, Minchella. Interchange McIlorum, Tanginoa, Brown, Luckley. Referee L Moore. This weekend should be the moment that wait ends. Hull KR are the best team in Super League in 2025, and are heavy favourites on Saturday. But Wembley has already left a scar on this squad with their golden-point defeat by Leigh in the 2023 final, and the prospect of history can weigh heavy on the shoulders when the stakes are at their highest. 'There will be a time when I'm not here and I'll look back on how good these days were but it will really mean nothing unless there is a trophy in the cabinet,' their captain, Elliot Minchella, explains. 'We understand where we're at and what we've got at stake. Nothing can drive you more than experiencing what it's like to lose at Wembley. Six hours on a bus back to Hull … it felt like someone had died.' Minchella stands on the verge of becoming the first Hull KR captain in a generation to achieve what others have failed to. But he is just one part of this impressive Rovers squad with the England half-back and reigning Man of Steel, Mikey Lewis, New Zealand great Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and full-back Jack Broadbent others to watch. The presence of Waerea-Hargreaves, one of the NRL's finest-ever players, should give Rovers added confidence they can get over the line at last. He was signed for moments like this, and the pain of their recent final defeats also adds a layer of determination. 'We might not have won those finals in the last couple of years but we learned a lot of lessons from them,' their second-row forward James Batchelor says. Getting on for 20,000 Hull KR fans will be at Wembley, and few would deserve a moment of success more than Rovers' owner, Neil Hudgell. He has poured millions into the club over the past 20 years, kept it alive through some dark times and is now witnessing the rebirth of what he saw himself in the 1980s: a thriving Hull KR. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Hudgell, who has worked tirelessly as the lawyer of the victims of the Post Office scandal for years, would be quick to insist this is not about him. But Hull KR would not have reached this point today without his support. This club is intertwined with its community in east Hull in a way few others are, and success this weekend could have a revolutionary impact beyond the four walls of Craven Park. 'When I moved to Hull, I underestimated what this club means to people,' Minchella says. 'You can't walk around a supermarket without someone asking you what's happening at the club and you have to embrace that, because people care. What we do on the field has a massive impact on the lives of people. Every moment matters for the people in this city. It defines their week. 'We try to represent the people of east Hull with the way we play. We never give up and we work for everything. I know what it'll do for the local area if we can win. It's time for us to go out and do our job now.' The walls of Craven Park are adorned with the images of those legends from 40 years ago but this club is in desperate need of a new set of heroes to worship. For Millward, Miller and Fairbairn in 1985, read Lewis, Minchella and Peters in 2025 if the final goes the way many expect.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hull KR and Hull FC savour local supremacy before top-of-table clash
Hull FC have been Super League's big overachievers this season and have their local rivals in their sights. Photograph: Richard Sellers/PA Nestled at the eastern tip of the M62, the city of Hull may sit on the very tip of British rugby league's geographical landscape but, right now, it is the epicentre of Super League. Few cities are driven by a passion for rugby league quite like it. Both of the city's clubs – Hull FC and Hull KR – have enjoyed spells in the upper echelons of Super League over the past 30 years but not since the early 80s, long before the advent of summer rugby, was there a time when both East Riding clubs were simultaneously competing for honours. Advertisement Related: Hull KR v Wigan: welcome to the newest rivalry in Super League Nobody in the city needs reminding about the importance of the traditional Good Friday meeting between the two sides but this season's derby has added gravitas, given top spot is at stake in Super League as Rovers and Hull sit first and second respectively after a quarter of an engrossing season. Back in the early 80s, Roger Millward and Steve Norton led the Yorkshire clubs at the top of the game. This time, it is local talent such as Rovers' reigning Man of Steel, Mikey Lewis, and the New Zealand prop Herman Ese'ese, the best forward in Super League right now, who are the key players. The derby always matters, as it did a fortnight ago when Rovers prevailed in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. But it is hard not to feel that this one is the most anticipated for years. 'I definitely didn't understand it as an outsider to Hull, even in my first year at the club it was all new to me,' says Rovers' captain, Elliot Minchella. 'I probably still didn't get it then, but as soon as I'd moved to Hull and now I live over here, I'm in the city and amongst it. You get it now, you hear stories about families being split, how much it means to them, the history of the derby – I absolutely get it.' Advertisement Rovers sit top before the Easter weekend, which is certainly less of a surprise than Hull being just one point behind them in second. Having reached last year's Grand Final, Rovers were expected to be among the challengers again. But Hull, who finished 11th of 12 last year, have undergone a rapid transformation. Inspired by the appointment of John Cartwright as their head coach, they have already won more league games this year than in the whole of 2024. 'I think it's brilliant for Hull but brilliant for rugby league to have both clubs like this,' says the Hull chief executive, Richie Myler. 'It's not since the 80s when both clubs were dominant and I'd want to make it clear that we're batting above average right now, and a long way off where we want to be on our journey. But if we can chase KR down and give our supporters something to cheer this weekend, that's going to mean a lot to so many people.' Cartwright and a raft of senior overseas players such as Ese'ese and Aidan Sezer have been integral to Hull's turnaround. But Myler is keen to stress that local lads will not be overlooked: there are frequently four or five products of Hull's academy in their 17. That serves as inspiration to aspiring youngsters. Advertisement Minchella feels that the Hull derby can often take outsiders aback. Myler played for some of Super League's biggest clubs, including Leeds and Warrington, but even he has been surprised. He acknowledges that 'I didn't really fully know' the size of the club before he arrived, 'or what this game means to people'. There is predictable disdain between the two sets of supporters but, between the clubs, there is mutual respect. Myler admits Hull are aiming to emulate the trajectory of Rovers, who have gone from finishing bottom in 2020 to becoming one of Super League's biggest sides on and off the pitch. The upwards journey of both teams is having a big impact across the whole city, with crowds booming – Friday's game will be a sellout of around 21,000 – and more people taking notice. 'The two teams are going well, so all the young kids now in Hull, it inspires them,' Minchella says. 'They want to play for Hull KR, they want to play for Hull FC and they want to go and play with their mates at the weekend. That's our responsibility as players to make them want to go out and do that. It adds to the game, the game's a bigger occasion, and it adds that extra bit to it.' Good Friday's victors may still be some way off seriously believing they can lift the Grand Final trophy at Old Trafford, but boasting the status of Hull's top team at any stage in the season is not to be sniffed at. Try telling anyone involved in this most ferocious of derby rivalries otherwise.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Hull KR and Hull FC savour local supremacy before top-of-table clash
Nestled at the eastern tip of the M62, the city of Hull may sit on the very tip of British rugby league's geographical landscape but, right now, it is the epicentre of Super League. Few cities are driven by a passion for rugby league quite like it. Both of the city's clubs – Hull FC and Hull KR – have enjoyed spells in the upper echelons of Super League over the past 30 years but not since the early 80s, long before the advent of summer rugby, was there a time when both East Riding clubs were simultaneously competing for honours. Nobody in the city needs reminding about the importance of the traditional Good Friday meeting between the two sides but this season's derby has added gravitas, given top spot is at stake in Super League as Rovers and Hull sit first and second respectively after a quarter of an engrossing season. Back in the early 80s, Roger Millward and Steve Norton led the Yorkshire clubs at the top of the game. This time, it is local talent such as Rovers' reigning Man of Steel, Mikey Lewis, and the New Zealand prop Herman Ese'ese, the best forward in Super League right now, who are the key players. The derby always matters, as it did a fortnight ago when Rovers prevailed in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. But it is hard not to feel that this one is the most anticipated for years. 'I definitely didn't understand it as an outsider to Hull, even in my first year at the club it was all new to me,' says Rovers' captain, Elliot Minchella. 'I probably still didn't get it then, but as soon as I'd moved to Hull and now I live over here, I'm in the city and amongst it. You get it now, you hear stories about families being split, how much it means to them, the history of the derby – I absolutely get it.' Rovers sit top before the Easter weekend, which is certainly less of a surprise than Hull being just one point behind them in second. Having reached last year's Grand Final, Rovers were expected to be among the challengers again. But Hull, who finished 11th of 12 last year, have undergone a rapid transformation. Inspired by the appointment of John Cartwright as their head coach, they have already won more league games this year than in the whole of 2024. 'I think it's brilliant for Hull but brilliant for rugby league to have both clubs like this,' says the Hull chief executive, Richie Myler. 'It's not since the 80s when both clubs were dominant and I'd want to make it clear that we're batting above average right now, and a long way off where we want to be on our journey. But if we can chase KR down and give our supporters something to cheer this weekend, that's going to mean a lot to so many people.' Cartwright and a raft of senior overseas players such as Ese'ese and Aidan Sezer have been integral to Hull's turnaround. But Myler is keen to stress that local lads will not be overlooked: there are frequently four or five products of Hull's academy in their 17. That serves as inspiration to aspiring youngsters. Minchella feels that the Hull derby can often take outsiders aback. Myler played for some of Super League's biggest clubs, including Leeds and Warrington, but even he has been surprised. He acknowledges that 'I didn't really fully know' the size of the club before he arrived, 'or what this game means to people'. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion There is predictable disdain between the two sets of supporters but, between the clubs, there is mutual respect. Myler admits Hull are aiming to emulate the trajectory of Rovers, who have gone from finishing bottom in 2020 to becoming one of Super League's biggest sides on and off the pitch. The upwards journey of both teams is having a big impact across the whole city, with crowds booming – Friday's game will be a sellout of around 21,000 – and more people taking notice. 'The two teams are going well, so all the young kids now in Hull, it inspires them,' Minchella says. 'They want to play for Hull KR, they want to play for Hull FC and they want to go and play with their mates at the weekend. That's our responsibility as players to make them want to go out and do that. It adds to the game, the game's a bigger occasion, and it adds that extra bit to it.' Good Friday's victors may still be some way off seriously believing they can lift the Grand Final trophy at Old Trafford, but boasting the status of Hull's top team at any stage in the season is not to be sniffed at. Try telling anyone involved in this most ferocious of derby rivalries otherwise.
