Hull KR boss Willie Peters makes suspension admission as key man ruled out

Hull KR boss Willie Peters has outlined his frustration to be without key back-rower James Batchelor this week.

Batchelor will miss Friday’s home clash with Salford Red Devils after being hit with a one-match ban for dangerous contact. The back-rower’s tackle on St Helens’ Jonny Lomax last week was deemed to be a Grade B offence, with Lomax being put at risk of injury due to its nature.

It came as Rovers underlined their League Leaders’ Shield credentials by thumping the Saints 42-6 at the Totally Wicked Stadium, extending their winning run to seven games in the process. That run of form has taken them to the league summit and with four games remaining they can take another step towards securing top spot with a win over Salford on Friday night.

They’ll have to do so without Batchelor, though, despite Peters’ belief that the back-rower did all he could to limit the chance of injury in the challenge.

“We’re missing Batch (James Batchelor) again this week,” Peters told BBC Humberside. “He was out for a while with injury. He’s an important part of what we do. So, we know that next person that comes in, they’ll do the job for us.

“He got suspended on the weekend for players when he came from the inside and he was working extremely hard from the inside to help his teammates. What Jonny Lomax was trying to do on the weekend was trying to skip to that next defender. Some players just let the half do that and say, ‘Oh, sorry, you can worry about it now’.

“Whereas he goes, ‘No, there’s a threat for our edge, I’ll go help’, and he went and did his job. That’s the sort of thing that he brings. I will say on that point, it’s a hard one, it’s disappointing because as I say if Batch doesn’t go do that and then Jonny Lomax throws a dummy, there’s a try getting scored.

“He goes into the position to try and make a tackle, pulls out of it when he knows the ball’s gone and then again, Batch being Batch, goes to his next job because he doesn’t want to let his edge down. Players do things and there were a couple of things that we did on the weekend that was silly, but that certainly wasn’t, that was just doing his job and then doing his best to try and help or make sure that he didn’t injure the player.

“He’s since been told that he’s better off making that tackle and then going on the ground with him but if you make that tackle and you put your full force through him and then the player hits his head or does something to his shoulder or because of the force going in, it’s worse. So I’m not sure what Batch could have done in that situation. We’ll miss him.”