Hull KR star ‘could still play’ in 2025 claims Willie Peters

Willie Peters has argued that hooker Matt Parcell “could still play” in 2025 despite confirmation that he will not be at Hull KR with Peters crediting the hooker for his impressive performances of late.

It was confirmed earlier in the year that Hull KR had not offered Parcell a contract for the 2025 season and they’ve since signed both Bill Leyland and Micky McIlorum to join Jez Litten and compete for the role next year.

There had been a belief that Parcell would retire at the end of the 2024 season but after usurping England international Jez Litten as the starter for Hull KR in recent weeks, questions are being asked about the future of the 32-year-old.

One such question was asked of Willie Peters last night after Hull KR beat Castleford 36-6 with Parcell putting in another strong performance.

Speaking post-game on Sky Sports, Peters explained: “He could still play there’s no doubt about that. Next year, obviously salary cap and things like that don’t allow certain things but he’s our starting nine at the moment and I think Jez is doing a great job coming off the bench. They complement each other.

“We put Jez in at 13 towards that back end to give Mini a spell off and I thought that worked as well. So, we’ve got two very good nines.”

Hull KR look set to be full on their overseas quota players for 2025 which is another key reason why they can’t extend Parcell, but plenty of other Super League sides with a space available will be looking at him.

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Hull KR go top of Super League

The Robins’ win over Castleford saw them return to the top of Super League, a position they first assumed when they beat Warrington Wolves on the road last week.

They were able to back that up handily with an eight-try performance, however, Willie Peters noted that his side could and perhaps should have scored more with points difference potentially crucial in their bid for the League Leaders Shield.

He explained: “We dominated the field position and we put a lot of pressure on them but we left a lot of tries out there. We stuck to the plan of how we wanted to play but obviously disappointed to give that first try away but I thought we defended well off the back of that.

“Mikey didn’t kick a few goals tonight but he’ll get better from that. As I said though,  I think we bombed a few tries.”

Lewis only kicked three of the seven conversions but added a penalty to his tally to bring his success rate with the boot to 50% for the night.

“The players regrouped and I was really happy with the way they responded, especially off the back of a really big win last weekend,” Peters explained as he commented on his side’s ability to back up their win against Wire and not take their eye off the ball with what was perceived to be an ‘easier’ game