Weekend Interview: Experienced Tim Sheens plots Hull Kingston Rovers' revival
The answer, of course, is Tim Sheens who commands Hull KR for the first time in a competitive fixture tomorrow as the club stunned by relegation last October begins the arduous path back towards Super League.
It is a fascinating story, considering how the esteemed coach ended up in this position preparing for games at unlikely outposts such as Swinton, Rochdale and Dewsbury.
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Hide AdWhen Sheens, who lifted the World Cup with the Kangaroos as recently as 2013, accepted Rovers chairman Neil Hudgell’s offer to coach them in 2017 last year, they were still in Super League.
However, an alarming run of results saw the East Yorkshire club dragged into the dreaded uncertainty of the Qualifiers.
A few weeks later, in a spectacular collapse that saw the Robins squander an 18-10 advantage with barely 90 seconds remaining, they lost the Million Pound Game to Salford Red Devils who survived instead at their expense.
The irony of it all was 66-year-old Sheens was actually director of rugby at Salford last season – he stepped aside in the week building up to that definitive contest due to the obvious conflict of interest that had arisen.
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