Rovers have sights on derby spoils

The Robins have climbed into the top eight after winning three of their last five matches, claiming the notable scalps of 2014 Grand Finalists Wigan and St Helens along the way, and have set their sights on a top-four spot but they have yet to win away from home in 2015.

Rovers captain Terry Campese, who sampled his first derby experience in a pre-season friendly, knows there would be no better way to break their away-day duck than at the hands of their arch rivals in front of a 20,000 crowd at the KC Stadium.

"I pretty much knew from the trial game that it meant a lot to the fans and the club and that it was going to be a massive day on Thursday," said Campese, 24 hours on from signing a two-year contract extension.

"We want to be more consistent in our performances. We've put a few good wins together but we haven't been able to back them up. We haven't won two in a row, so that's our main focus.

"The three games we've won have all been at home and we need to win away if we want to be serious about this competition. You can't just rely on home games to get you the points."

Hull are in the bottom four after winning just two of their opening seven matches but are only two points behind the Robins in the congested table.

"They are a quality outfit," said Campese, whose mother is flying over from Australia for the derby. "I don't think where they sit on the table indicates the form they've shown this year. They've lost a couple of games by one point."

Meanwhile, Warrington coach Tony Smith is calling a truce in his battle against the Easter programme as he seeks to prevent his side conceding a third successive defeat for the first time for six years.

Smith has led the calls for the scrapping of the traditional double-header, arguing that the extra workload on players dilutes the competition, but is looking forward to the chance to pick up some much-needed points after losing back-to-back fixtures against St Helens and Huddersfield.

"I think the time will come when we scrap the double-header," Smith said. "I think there's some really sensible people about that are starting to understand the overall importance of performance rather than the number of games.

"But I'm not going to complain about it this year. We're looking forward to the Easter period and we're rolling our sleeves up because our form hasn't been great the last couple of weeks so it's a chance for us to get back on track. It's a change of mentality for us this year.

"After Huddersfield we had a feeling that we wanted to play the next day so it's good that a couple of games have snuck up on us pretty quickly."

Warrington have lost on their last two visits to the Select Security Stadium, where Widnes have collected five points out of a possible eight so far this year, but Smith believes he has discovered a way of cancelling the Vikings' advantage of playing on their artificial pitch.

"We've got an indoor barn with a similar sort of surface that we've spent so much time on in the last few months because the grounds haven't been right," Smith said.

"We're not looking at their place as a disadvantage for us. I know they look at it as a huge advantage and I'd have to say their home form has been considerably better than their away form.

"They know how to play on that pitch but we have a better understanding of it now."

In Thursday's other game, Catalans Dragons must cope without French international full-back Morgan Escare as they seek a first away win of the season against bottom club Wakefield.

Escare, who has scored 31 tries in 39 consecutive appearances for the Dragons, misses his first game for 18 months through suspension.

Coach Laurent Frayssinous has called up reserve half-back Stan Robin, who spent some time at Wakefield when Julien Rinaldi played there four years ago, for what would be his Super League debut.