Saints welcome Hull KR coaches as they seek ways to stay at the top

Hull KR's 2025 season will be remembered as one of the greatest in the club's history after they completed a clean sweep of all available trophies, becoming just the fifth club in Super League history to win the treble.

The rugby league outfit went on to finish sixth in the standings this time round, losing to Warrington Wolves in a play-off eliminator, and they were beaten in the Challenge Cup final by Wigan Warriors.

Saints face a similar challenge during this campaign in terms of trying to stay at the top after winning the PREM last season.

And Dowson was happy to welcome Hull KR assistant coach Luke Gale and head of strength and conditioning Calum Christopherson to the Gardens this week to get an idea of how they handled trying to back up their treble-season success.

"We've had a couple of coaches from Hull KR in this week," Dowson said. "They obviously won the treble last year and this year they got to the play-offs, they got to the Challenge Cup final and it's tough - staying at the top is difficult.

"That's why it's such an exciting challenge for us, to see where we measure up with those opportunities.

"We've had lots of league coaches in over the years and it's good to get people in from different sports and pick their brains because they had the same challenge we have at the start of the year.

"I speak to (head coach) Matt Peet at Wigan Warriors quite a lot around the work that he's done because it's just been exceptional in terms of the longevity.

"They (the coaches that come in) sit with us in the coaching office, talk code and they sit in meetings.

"The big thing is that we had Russell Earnshaw in, who is a coach developer, and we have conversations around, 'I like the way you did this, I thought this was great in the meeting, I'm surprised you don't do this, when I looked at training I thought this'.

"Actually, we might say we've considered all of those things and that's how we decided to do it, or Sam (Vesty) and I might say 'oh, that's an interesting thought' and then it's something to add to the mix really and have a conversation as a coaching group, and I think that's a very healthy thing to do.

"We've had lots of coaches come through our system. For example, Jim Henry has coached in the Academy, coached Bedford and now he's the defence coach. He's been in the Saints environment so it's good for him to get a different voice and a different point of view."