“I would never tell my players to lay down” – Willie Peters has his say on yellow card

As Hull KR lost to Leigh Leopards in the first Challenge Cup Final without a ‘big club’ – Leeds Rhinos, Wigan Warriors, Warrington Wolves and St Helens – since 1986, there were plenty of controversial moments that will no doubt be talked about for a long time.

There was a potential penalty try that was denied for Hull KR who later suffered a yellow card in one of the most controversial moments in the game.

Elliot Minchella hit Ben Reynolds late and was yellow carded.

Leigh turned the penalty into a key two points that in such a tight game were absolutely vital to the Leopards as they won the Challenge Cup Final for the first time since 1971.

After the game, Willie Peters was asked about the incident and said he would never tell his players to stay down:

“I don’t want to go too much into it, but I would never, ever tell my players to lay down, and Brad Schneider at the start got hit late.

“If he lays down, does he get 10 minutes? I would never say to our players to lay down. Whether he laid down or not, we’ll have a look and see what the contact was and then you guys can make your own mind up.”

Despite this controversy, Peters was very proud of his side and he underlined this as he was asked about his reaction when talking to the players.

He said:

“Yeah, absolutely, very, very proud, you can’t not. We spoke before the game, no regrets, don’t regret in terms of your individual performance and that’s around effort and competing. I thought all 17 players did that tonight.

“There’s no doubt we’re going to be disappointed and it’s a disappointed shed. Of course, we just lost a final but we also spoke about that we’ve got six, seven games to go in the Super League season and you can push and try and get to the finals and then see how we go off the back of that.”

Hull KR will now have to turn their attention back on the fight to make the Super League play-offs.