Joe Batchelor and James Batchelor will be going head to head when Hull KR face Hull FC at Magic Weekend
Joe and James Batchelor of Hull FC and Hull KR ahead of their Hull derby fixture
The parents of Joe and James Batchelor will be the only people inside the Hill Dickinson Stadium hoping for a draw when Hull FC take on Hull KR at Magic Weekend.
It’s not unusual to see a Hull derby played away from East Yorkshire, with almost 20 years of Magic Weekend making that a common occurrence.
What is unusual though is to see two brothers going head to head representing different sides of the city. It has been done before, with Richard Horne and Graeme Horne facing each other facing off against each other for a brief period towards the end of their careers between 2012 and 2014.
More recently, we have seen cousins Jez Litten and Davy Litten compete against each other, too. Both the Littens will be action this weekend for the Robins and the Airlie Birds respectively and they’ll each by lining up alongside a Batchelor brother.
James Batchelor has been with the Robins since 2023 and knows his way around a Hull derby by now. He was joined in East Yorkshire by his older brother Joe at the start of the year, though, with the former St Helens man making the switch to the MKM Stadium to play in black and white.
The brothers, from Wakefield, are used to playing against each other in Super League but this year has been different to say the least. The Good Friday derby had hardly got going before Joe was limping off with a hamstring injury, but this weekend, they are both fully fit and ready to go. As such, when the action gets underway in Merseyside, spare a thought for the parents.
“My mum is hoping for a draw, neither of us to make a tackle, have a carry or get injured and nothing of note to happen in the game,” James, the younger brother by three and half years, said ahead of today’s clash. “My dad is probably hoping for 80 minutes of absolute chaos.
“For the big events we have family that come up from down south and make a weekend of it, it will be interesting for them to experience it because I don’t think they’ve had that yet.
“When I knew he was coming over [to Hull] I was happy and we’ve got closer and we’ve both got young kids of the same age so it’s really nice to see them grow up together.
“If one of us has picked up a knock or one of us has had a bad result, you can have a coffee and chat about it. More than anything it’s just being brothers.
“I think the weeks we play each other there’s an understanding. We know this week, though, there’s no point speaking to each other about rugby because we’re not going to give each other anything.”
Indeed, brotherly love will be in short supply on Saturday afternoon but in reality the only thing that matters to either Batchelor is the two points. With little else to play for at this point, Hull will be motivated by trying to end a run of seven-straight defeats to their nearest and dearest.
For Rovers, though, who were humbled last week at Leeds Rhinos, the win would give them an enormous boost as they look to get their season back on track and climb back towards Super League’s top two.
“After a loss you want to put it right straight away, you don’t want one defeat to snowball and put you in a difficult position,” the KR man said. “We’re really confident in our own ability because we know the things we’ve been doing at the moment are things that we can fix.
“The last couple of weeks we’ve not completed anywhere near an acceptable level, we’ve made fundamental errors. We know that’d not who we’ve been in the past but we know we can fix that and once we do, everything else comes off the back of it.
“Ultimately all this week is about is the derby. Nothing that’s happened before or after the derby matters. The derby is the only thing that matters when they come around because what happens in that 80 minutes has a big impact on the city as a whole. It’s a must win, but it’s a must win because it’s a derby, nothing else that’s going on matters for Hull FC or Hull KR.”