Hull KR head coach Willie Peters has questioned the gamesmanship on show last night as his side lost to Wigan Warriors in a game where two sin bins proved crucial to the Robins’ defeat.
Wigan ran out as 24-20 winners but were the worse side for much of the match despite outscoring Hull KR by five tries to three, but four of those scores came when the Robins were down to twelve men.
Joe Burgess was sent from the field for a flop on the half-hour mark, after which Wigan scored two before half time whilst Jai Whitbread was then controversially sent to the bin after a high shot on Tyler Dupree from the kick-off after a Bevan French try.
The controversy around Whitbread’s sin bin came from the fact that Tyler Dupree stayed down for well over a minute which prompted the video referee to check the incident and in turn send the Hull KR prop to the sin bin.
Across the season, but particularly in recent weeks, there has been a trend of players staying down to ‘milk’ a penalty or a sin bin and whilst Willie Peters has not suggested that is what Dupree did, the Australian has teed off on the fact that it is being ‘coached’ into players.
Hull KR boss hits out at gamesmanship
Credit: Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com
Speaking post-game on Sky Sports, the Hull KR boss was asked about how exactly his team lost considering how well they performed for large periods of the game.
For Peters, the answer was simple: “With twelve men,” he responded.
“I think all their tries came when we had twelve men on the field so that hurt us. It shouldn’t but they did.
“We were in a couple of positions to win that game. A couple of times we should have won that game but I’m extremely proud of them.”
Asked further about the yellow cards, Peters explained: “I need to have a look at it but what I don’t like is players staying down. If you’re injured, you’re injured, stay down, come off if you need to. But I would never coach my players to stay down and it’s one of those things that I think a few coaches in the game are speaking about.
“It (players staying down) is obviously working and players are getting 10 minutes in the sin bin for different things. Now that may have been warranted, but I’m not sure.
“We’ll keep chatting about it with the coaches and the RFL. At the end of the day, if it’s high, it’s high. If he’s injured, he’s injured, but I think it’s creeping in a little bit too much.”
Whilst Whitbread was off the field, Liam Marshall scored two tries which saw the scores levelled and then Wigan took the lead and with it the win. It means Wigan have claimed top spot with just two games to go but Willie Peters has given a warning message to Matt Peet’s side.
“Wigan are going to be looking over their shoulder after tonight, there’s no doubt about that. We stuck it to them and we’ve got the game to, as we saw tonight, to really compete against them.
