Defiance, desperation – York Knights silence doubters on Super League debut

There is nothing sweeter than proving your doubters wrong. On the opening night of Super League 2026, York Knights silenced all of them, in some style.

In the first half, York defended 32 play the balls in their own half. Sky Sports’ Sam Tomkins remarked that a team of Hull KR’s calibre should be expecting “two or three tries” from such an extensive period of pressure.

They got none.

Such was the sheer desperation of the home team’s defence that they toiled and toiled to keep the reigning champions out.

All I could think watching on was that from that they were going to lose all their energy in the second half. The Robins would come good and the floodgates would open. Once again, they proved another prediction wrong with bells on.

To understand the sheer magnitude of York’s achievement is to understand the make up of Super League heading into its 30th anniversary year.

Promotion and relegation has not existed for the last couple of years but on top of the new gradings system, two clubs were chosen by an independent panel to increase the number of teams in the competition from 12 to 14.

York were one of the teams chosen alongside Toulouse Olympique, with Bradford Bulls getting into the automatic top 12 to replace Salford Red Devils.

That led to every season prediction having the Knights propping up the competition after 27 rounds when factoring in salary-cap use, player calibre, and experience. Eleven of their squad had never played a top-flight Super League game before.

Not only that, it was revealed that, due to having the World Club Challenge against Brisbane Broncos on Thursday February 19, Hull KR had “requested” to play a team along the lines of York, Bradford or Toulouse. Talk about giving a team even more motivation than they already had.

“That’s a game that we’ve worked with Hull KR on in terms of preparing them as best as we can for the World Club Challenge the following Thursday, so it’s no surprise that this game is on the Thursday night to give Hull KR the preparation time for that Brisbane game,” RL Commercial’s Rhodri Jones said.

“We discussed with Hull KR and their want, their desire, their ask of us was to play a team similar to York, to a Bradford or Toulouse as an example.”

In sport, statistics, analysis, and nuance have become the focus as each team spend their week of preparation learning how to undo their opposition. York’s Liam Harris had spent his week practising drop goals. They were ready for a dogfight.

Then, when the drop-goal moment arrived, Harris passed it to his team-mate Ata Hingano to send the ball sailing over to secure the almighty win.

“First drop goal of the career. I was hoping Liam [Harris] would nail it, he’s been doing that all day in training. In training he didn’t pass to me once, so I’m pretty happy to pull it off,” said York Knights match-winner Hingano to Sky Sports.

“To be honest there was no call, it was off the cuff. That’s the best way we play footie, off the cuff.

“The way I look at the win is that we put in the work. People looked at us as a team coming from the Championship, but I wish everyone could see we’ve put in just as much work as they have.”

York are the 25th team in Super League’s history to give it a go in the top flight and they have lofty ambitions. Speaking at the rugby league awards in October 2025, head coach Mark Applegarth referenced that if they were chosen for Super League they would be the only top-flight club in the cathedral city. Sky Sports’ Mark Wilson spoke to fans before kick-off and they called it the city’s biggest moment in 40 years.

They had no right to beat Hull KR. KR are the treble holders, in seven days’ time they will be looking to be champions of the world.

People will say about the rain, Mikey Lewis’ sin-binning, the fact it was the opening round of the season. Do all of those things matter? Yes. But did they on their own lose Hull KR the match? No.

Rather, York won the match with their own will, own determination, own defiance to show that a team is more than the talent on paper, a team is more than the money spent on players. In the words of player-of-the-match Paul McShane: “A team is built on togetherness”.

Togetherness York had in abundance. They went out to show they should be respected and respected they now are.

Desperation is defined as a ‘feeling of a strong need for change or relief, often driven by a sense of urgency’. Defiance is defined as ‘bold disobedience’.

Combine the two and you get York Knights on Thursday February 12, 2026.

Sky Sports will again show every game of the Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining five matches each week shown on Sky Sports+

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