Hull KR boss Willie Peters insists he isn’t concerned by his side’s wavering performances as they head into the Super League play-offs.
The Robins claimed their second trophy of the season on Thursday night as they got over the line on the final day of the season with a 28-20 win over Warrington Wolves at Craven Park but they didn’t have it all their own way.
Warrington actually led the game twice, with Josh Thewlis getting over in the opening stages of the game before Sam Stone, Adam Holroyd and Thewlis touched down at the start of the second half to panic the home support.
KR stuck to the task, though, and Arthur Mourgue blew the game wide open with an effort from 85 metres, slipping two tackles and speeding away to score. Tyrone May made sure of it with his second of the night to spark wild scenes of celebration in east Hull.
It was a performance that was far from perfect and in truth the Robins have been short of their swashbuckling best for some time, losing at Wakefield Trinity last week and struggling to see off Hull FC the week before.
Peters isn’t worried about their recent form, though, with the Rovers boss confident that his side will rise to the challenge of knockout rugby.
“I’m honestly not bothered at all,” Peters said when asked about his side’s performance. “We needed to win tonight and got into a position where we could have gotten beaten. But we ended up finding a way to win. That’s the main thing we needed to achieve tonight.
“If people are looking for momentum going in, that’s fine, I’m comfortable with it. Semi finals are a new ball game. I’ve seen teams go in before flying, you see it in the NRL previously, and they’re out in straight sets. On the flip side, others team might not perform how they want but it’s a brand new ball game. I’m comfortable where we sit at the moment because after 27 rounds, we sit on top.”
On the need to rise to the challenge, he added: “I think the play-offs do that regardless of how you’re going. They’re the best six teams in the competition and those six teams have beaten everyone, they’ll be exciting games, they’ll be fast and that’s how we like to play. We don’t like a stop-start game, we want attrition and semi-finals will have that.
“You don’t really have to motivate players in semis and if you’re looking for motivation, we shouldn’t be there. I know they’ll be highly motivated, we want to chase one more trophy and finish off what has been a memorable year with one more.”
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Speaking about the Robins’ second major achievement of the year, Peters said: “Really pleased for everyone involved at the club, obviously the players are the ones that do it every week.
“It’s a reward for consistency throughout the season and I want to thank the players and staff for their efforts so far, there’s been two trophies and we’ve got two, but obviously there’s one to go and we want to work towards that one as well.
“I think when we broke down the first half it wasn’t too bad. They had a 40/20, we didn’t go up for a kick and there was an obstruction so no try. Aside from that, we built our way back in the game. What I was pleased about was we didn’t do that last week.
“Once they got ahead it was always going to be a test of our character and spine needed to step up. I’m really proud and pleased for them because we spoke about the responsibility they have within the group and I thought each spine member stepped up today.”
