Disclosed herein is a rubber covered roll comprising a metallic core and at least one covering rubber layer. The covering rubber layer is a vulcanized rubber layer formed by a rubber composition comprising an ethylenically unsaturated nitrile-conjugated diene type highly saturated copolymer rubber (A) having a conjugated diene unit content of the polymer chain of at most 25 wt. % and the zinc salt (B) of an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid. A covering rubber layer coming into contact with the metallic core is at least a vulcanized rubber layer formed by a rubber composition comprising 100 parts by weight of a rubber component containing at least 50 wt. % of the highly saturated copolymer rubber (A) and 10-40 parts by weight of the zinc salt (B). A rubber composition for rubber covered rolls is also disclosed. It comprises 100 parts by weight of a rubber component containing 90-50 wt. % of the highly saturated copolymer rubber (A) and 50-10 wt. % of a diene rubber, and 10-40 parts by weight of the zinc salt (B) of an ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid.