Hull KR may be rugby league’s new world club champions but, on the biggest stage the sport can provide its star athletes, it was Leeds Rhinos who produced their very best in Las Vegas to dismantle the Super League champions.
A week after stunning Brisbane Broncos, the National Rugby League premiers, to win the World Club Challenge for the first time, the Robins headed to Nevada keen to put on another show to enhance their burgeoning reputation as one of the sport’s great sides. But the Super League champions were humbled by one of their main title rivals.
Whether Rovers were fatigued from their exploits against the Broncos is a discussion for another day. But whatever the reason, there is no doubting they were second best here against a Leeds side fast becoming their kryptonite. Last year, the Rhinos won two of the three meetings between the teams; no other side beat Hull KR more than once. Already in 2026, Leeds have flexed their muscle against Super League’s best side to suggest it may well be their turn to secure silverware this season. It was almost impossible to pick out a star performer given the displays of almost their entire side.
The damage was done throughout a sensational first half in which Leeds were essentially faultless, with the veteran winger Maika Sivo to the fore. The Parramatta Eels great missed all of 2025 with a serious knee injury but he is clearly intent on making up for lost time with six tries in his first two games this year, including four in Vegas.
Sivo scored the opening two in this contest to put the Rhinos into an early lead, the second a monstrous show of strength to bat aside two Hull KR defenders and score with only an inch of space. By half-time Leeds had scored three more tries courtesy of Keenan Palasia, Brodie Croft and Ryan Hall.
That Hall score came after Sivo produced an unbelievable catch close to his own line before racing downfield. While he was halted by a scrambling defence, the Rhinos – inspired by Jake Connor at half-back – worked the ball to the opposite flank to allow Hall to score his 350th career try.
With Leeds leading 28-0 at the interval, there was little danger of a comeback from the champions. The Rhinos extinguished that possibility 10 minutes after the restart when Croft scored his second before more off-the-cuff attack from Leeds led to Sivo completing his first-hat-trick.
There was temporary respite for the Robins, who avoided the humiliation of being scoreless on a stage as big as this when Joe Burgess scored a consolation. But Sivo soon recaptured the spotlight with another bulldozing run for his fourth before a late double from Cooper Jenkins brought up the 50 points; it was the first time since 2023 that Hull KR have conceded so many.
The Robins had the eyes of the rugby league world on them after their heroics against the Broncos, but they now head to Huddersfield next week still without a league win in 2026. That game is a meeting of Super League’s last two winless sides this season, with this the worst start to a season from defending champions in a decade.
This occasion and this particular grand stage, for once given their recent history, did not belong to Hull KR. This was the Rhinos’ moment.
