Hull KR boss Willie Peters has confirmed that hooker Bill Leyland will not be heading out on loan this week following his efforts for St Helens a fortnight ago.
Leyland featured off the bench for Saints in their Good Friday win over Wigan Warriors. He instantly became a new hero at the club as he scored two tries in the final 10 minutes as the club completed a sensational comeback to defeat their biggest rivals.
With the 23-year-old featuring in two of the Robins’ Challenge Cup games so far this season, it meant he couldn’t be loaned out last week.
Talk has surrounded the former London man as to whether he would be heading to either St Helens or elsewhere again this week, but Peters has denied that notion, saying everyone will be kept in-house for Super League round eight.
Asked in his weekly press conference if anyone would be heading out for game time this week, the boss said: “Not at this stage, no. We’ll look at week by week, but at this stage, no, we don’t have anyone out on loan this week.”
After such an impressive display for the Red Vee, Leyland certainly put himself in a position to reclaim a space in KR’s 17, however he was an absentee in the club’s Challenge Cup win over York on Saturday afternoon.
Explaining that decision, Peters revealed: “Yeah, it definitely is [tough] but it’s good. You want to have that.
“We’ve got that at the moment with our middles and we’ve got that now with that extra person who’s going to come off the interchange for Jez.
“As I said, Jez can play 80 minutes and that’s what makes it difficult at times for Bill but we know what Bill can bring. Bill played against Catalans and played really well. It was a short stint but played well for us.
“We obviously know what he did for Saints, which was awesome for 22 minutes but it’s what he did in the reserves for me where no one’s watching.
“At Craven Park here there was only a couple of hundred people instead of thousands and obviously on the TV but that’s where we look as coaches to go, okay, what’s their performance like compared to when he performed in front of 20,000 over at Saints.
“It was a similar performance for a long period so we certainly look at all that and look at what they do in training. It’s important no matter where these guys play that they’re performing well and training well and that’s the headache we want as coaches.”
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Hull KR still in the dark regarding rescheduled Warrington Wolves fixture
As it stands, Hull KR and Warrington both have a game in hand, and that is due to their round two fixture being postponed due to KR’s involvement in the World Club Challenge.
Given that KR and Wire have drawn each other in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, it means that there is no free weekend for their game to be played, so it will have to be done in mid-week.
This scenario has been done before, with Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards needing to face off on a Tuesday evening in August 2024 due to Wigan’s clash with Penrith Panthers earlier that year.
Revealing what he knows at this stage about that postponed fixture, Peters revealed:Â “I think in the background they’re organising it now.
“Initially what was going to obviously be played if we’re both out of the Challenge Cup. Now one of us obviously going through to the final, so we won’t be out so, it’ll be later on.
“I’m not sure when, I don’t think they’ve finalised it as yet. That’s in the background, they’re working on that.
“For us it’s obviously not ideal. I think for Warrington unfortunately it’s not ideal because we played over in Vegas and obviously the World Club Challenge so we sort of had to do it whereas they drew us and it was sort of unlucky for them.
“It’s not ideal but both clubs are obviously aware of it at the start and then when we do play it, there’s three games in that week. That’s why we need to just manage the players and manage our schedule accordingly, which we are, which will help set us up for that.”
