I wasn't looking forward to this at all after our recent awful form and Hull looking very good particularly in their win at Warrington on Friday, however if we can put in an 80 minutes like today's 2nd half then we will be in with a chance, Hull will obviously go into the match as favourites but as we all know that means nothing once the game kicks off.

Hull have been in some good form and put the 'who have they beaten?' thing to bed this week. That said, if we did beat them, we'd now go level with them on points - which given their celebratory tone and our rather funereal one recently would be a bit strange. In a good way from our pov.
At least we're not going into it in disarray - today's game sounded like it could go either way at ht and if it had been us conceding 28 unanswered points after the break, I dread to think...
But it wasn't, so looking forward to it.

I doubt you'll enjoy overwhelming possession against us like you did against wakey but it should be a lot more competitive than many fans have been thinking. Hull should win it but will need to be at the top of their game to make sure they do

Think everyone will admit Hull are favourites but I'm sure Rovers will make a fist of it. Games like this that I'd love Rovers to be at full strength.

Any news on Gleeson, O'Hara & Tuimavave. Patterson would be missing anyway through suspension so glad his injury is only a 2-3 week injury.

Just a sugar coating, Hull will be too much for us.

hulls improved form has come from us learning that we need to work hard to earn the right to attack, and to be patient in the posses. but i fear that the occasion could throw hull into there old bad habits of pushing the plays early in the game and then panic sets in. Hull have still got a lot to prove in my opinion.

Mrs. Coffee will be along shortly claiming fc are massive underdogs next week and that victory will be the mother of all shocks.

I doubt that very much...

Hull will be big favourites and rightly so, there in great form and at full strength too, where as were so unpredictable and have injuries galore . Should be a walk in the park for them.

If Rovers were any other team with your injuries, players and form, against our players, full strength and form, I would indeed pick us as quite clear favourites.

This however is a derby. I wouldn't be surprised if we / you won by 1 point, or we / you won by 40 points. Its stupidly unpredictable.

my thought and feels exactly

Haven't been many SL derbies that have gone with form and whilst rovers have been up and down, they're only 2 points behind Hull having won the same number of games so there isn't a massive gulf between the sides. Hull have been in good form the last 3 weeks but rovers were big favourites in the 1st and 3rd derbies last season and Hull won both. This one could go either way

Its a local derby, form goes out the window,how many times have we seen the fav turned over, lots, the tables never lie and that shows us 2 points above you, thats not much ,like all derbies i would snap your arm off if you told me an fc win by 1 point,

Im looking forward to the game,a win would be great but i'm just glad to be going,my first Magic weekend.
I'm sitting near the window!!

It has been said a lot, but I'm not sure whether SL derbies have run against form all that much. 2007 clearly did when our first derby win ended a run of 7 defeats and 42-6 came out of leftfield. Your wins were widely anticipated though.
We won 5 of the next six derbies, during your very poor 2008-9 period, and prior to your 44-18 win, we'd ourselves lost 5 of the previous 6.
2010 and 2011 they were split 3 a piece and there wasn't much between the teams in the table. You were better than us last year and that was reflected in the derbies - the one we did win was our 4th victory in 5 fixtures and came the week after we put 70 on Cas.
We started this season indifferently, but you were, at that point, worse.

An element of hindsight in there, no doubt, but the form goes out the window stuff - I'm not sure they're any more or less predictable than a lot of other fixtures.

On paper and form we are rightly clear favorites and if we play in the intensity of the last few weeks, then I can only see a comfy win for Hull, I am glad you won yesterday as I would have worried about the back lash, if you had got beat again.

However our record is poor at MM and derbies are hard to predict, but I will be very disapointted if we don't beat you on Saturday.

Although the last time I felt this confident on a Hull victory against Rovers you beat us at the KC 42-6!!!!

Can't be bothered to look at form pre 2012, however last year, rovers were big favourites going into the 1st derby, mainly due to a massive injury problem for Hull which saw Radford come out of retirement. As for the craven park one, Hull were in a rich vein of form, having managed 1 win in the previous 7 games (extending to 3 in 12 if you want) and a patched up side including the devastating ryan mcgoldrick pulling the strings at half back. rovers may have been as bad to be fair but Hull were hardly overwhelming favourites

The form book points to FC not being haunted by 'never beat us at magic', but as we all know the form book counts for nowt.

It is impossible to predict the unpredictable, therefore I will curse it by going with Rovers by 12pts!

Lets hope for a great game to show the rest of the league what is super leagues ONLY true derby

I just want the result deciding by the players on the pitch and not some blind ref/touch judge.

Id settle for the same as last year with a try from a flat pass again

Too close to call IMO. No "should Win" applies on Derby Day IMO

If we could win it with a flat pass for revenge though, that would be grand. Or 70-0, that would also be pretty grand. (providing the last try is from a flat pass

)

Wasn't 'derby' first used for a game between Wigan & Saints?

Nope. That is what they like to think.

Yeh. It was Stanley Gene that first coined the term 'derby' back in 1996,referring to a Rovers v Hull game. My mistake.