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The demands placed on back-up rolls in hot strip mills have been investigated by a combination of literature and industrial studies. The tribological operating conditions have been established and the maximum local loads and pressure distributions at the work roll/back-up roll interface have been obtained by processing mill and roll schedule data using a computer program (commercial software developed by V AI Industries (UK) Ltd) and applying the theories of contact mechanics. After a study of the responses of the rolls to these demands and possible failure mechanisms, research has centred on surface initiated damage whereby cracks can propagate into the roll substrate potentially reaching the internal residual stress fields and leading to catastrophic failure. A proposed qualitative contact and fracture mechanics model, for the rolling contact fatigue and spalling failure, has been quantified theoretically using published methods for determining the stress intensity factors at the tips of pressurised and water lubricated, inclined rolling contact fatigue cracks. The predictions of the quantitative model in terms of crack directions and lengths have been validated by microscopic observation of the morphologies cracks produced in test discs used in the "SUROS" Rolling-Sliding Testing Machine and also in a sample of material spalled from a back-up roll. The quantitative failure model includes criteria for crack branching either upwards leading to micro spalling or downwards (potentially catastrophic) and the link between these two cases has been related quantitatively to the value of the mode I threshold for the roll material. After linking mechanics to microstructure and quantifying the interactions between wear and rolling contact fatigue in this case, practical quantitative recommendations have been made for the design of bainitic back-up roll materials, back-up roll redressing procedures and the surface roughness of both the work rolls and back-up rolls presented to the mill.