Season 2021

A Centenary season Wembley win and a second consecutive Grand Final appearance.

The 2021 season started on schedule but under the shadow of Covid.  No spectators were allowed until May, Covid protocols meant players missing for extended periods and in some cases games being cancelled and not replayed.  Consequently, league positions were determined on a percentage basis and with part-time players not able to travel abroad Toulouse played only away league games.

Rovers had recruited well for the abandoned 2020 season, so when quality signings such as Nu Brown, Kris Welham and Craig Kopczak were added to the squad, hopes were high of a very competitive season. And so it proved. The side won its first thirteen games straight, racking up some big scores in a free-scoring manner, Gareth Gale leading the way with some profilic try scoring. The club also progressed to the final of the 1895 Cup against York at Wembley. A Covid outbreak hit the squad hard, but a patched togther team with numerous youngsters, and even a first team debutant in Joe Summers, did the job required on the big day.

It rapidly became apparent that Rovers and Toulouse were far and away the best teams, and so their meeting at Post Office Road in August would be a title decider, and have a significant say in the playoff fixtures. Toulouse won that game, Rovers' only league defeat of the whole campaign. The rest of the games were won, and the Grand Final duly set up in the south of France in October, Rovers' second successive final, both of them abroad. Once again, it was not to be, and what was in many ways a stellar season had fallen at the final hurdle.