Hull KR’s rollercoaster ride from the depths to chance of World Club Challenge glory

Longstanding owner Neil Hudgell has revived Hull KR and the Super League champions take on Brisbane Broncos with the world crown up for grabs

To appreciate the absolute highs, you perhaps have to first experience the ultimate lows: when Hull KR walk out for the World Club Challenge on Thursday, few will be better placed to say they have done that quite like their longstanding owner, Neil Hudgell.

The Super League champions will aim to be crowned the world’s best rugby league club side for the first time when they take on the NRL’s Brisbane Broncos. To satisfy the unprecedented demand, they have taken ownership of the venue of their great rivals, Hull FC, for one night only – with 25,000 supporters, double the capacity of their Craven Park home, buying tickets in record time.

It is a far cry from the many nadirs Hudgell has experienced during his 25-year ownership of the club. Rovers have languished in the sport’s second tier for lengthy periods during that time, coming close to financial ruin on more than one occasion. But they have risen as a Super League force, culminating with the historic treble last year, their first trophies for 40 years.

Hudgell, more than most given the millions he has invested into his boyhood club, will take pride at how far they have come and specifically where they have come from. “I vividly remember the old Craven Park, crowds of barely more than 1,000. People just weren’t really interested in Hull KR for long periods of time. The old ground had a greyhound track running around it, we’d all be mucking in to get the pitch playable. There was one food kiosk.

“Everyone knew each other by name because it was more akin to a religion of habit rather than any sense of belief you could go on and achieve something. We’ve waited a hell of a long time for this.”

Hudgell was in the crowd as a boy the last time Hull KR faced Australian opposition, when the last great Rovers side defeated a touring Queensland team 8-6. It was 1983 and at their peak, until now, at least. By the time the 1990s arrived, financial problems emerged and Rovers began the Super League era in the third tier.

“I’ve seen 10 years of absolutely everything and 30 years of nothing,” Hudgell says, smiling. “The moral of the story here is to take nothing for granted. I grew up with Hull KR being a great team. Thursday is the moment of a return to those nights and those days, but I’m very conscious nothing lasts for ever. I hope people embrace the moment like I’m going to.”

The people of Hull – one side of it, at least – appear to have certainly done that. Hull KR’s decision to move the game across the city with Craven Park not being big enough raised eyebrows, but the switch has been vindicated. Rovers’ crowds flirted around the 7,000 mark in recent times, but last year more than 11,000 attended every match.

The game represents a chance to solidify Hull KR’s position at the top of the sport and attract a whole new generation of supporters to the club, with Hull KR’s Super League stars such as the England half-back Mikey Lewis going toe-to-toe with the Brisbane and Kangaroos superstar Reece Walsh.

“We probably could get over 15,000 people in at Craven Park,” Hudgell says. “There’s thousands on a waiting list and that job has been done quietly in the background. A few years ago, the demographic was basically me: older, middle-aged white males. But we’ve worked to get young kids invested and I suppose that’s what you’re going to see when it’s full on Thursday.”

Brisbane are heavy favourites, with Hull KR reeling from a surprise defeat in the Super League opener last week against the promoted York Knights. But the odds have been stacked against English sides before and Hudgell is acutely aware of the opportunity to join Leeds, Wigan and St Helens by being crowned world champions.

“I’m always asked whether it’s been worth it; the blood, sweat, tears and investment,” Hudgell says. “I would have always said no right up until the day we completed that treble. We now have a legacy in the history of the sport and the city of Hull. That made it a yes for me.

“To lay a World Club Challenge on top of that, for Hull KR to be champions of the rugby league world … well, that’s immortality stuff isn’t it? There has never been a world champion team in Hull. To be the first, that’s pretty much what you dream of.”