Hull KR head coach Willie Peters has cast his verdict after the heavy loss to Leeds Rhinos with the Australian paying plenty of credit to the hosts but ultimately blaming his side’s error count.
The Robins made 15 errors as they lost 34-8 to Brad Arthur’s side, marking their second defeat of the season against the Rhinos, who had hammered Hull KR 58-6 in Las Vegas.
Willie Peters explained mid-week that he would get the sense of how embarrassed his players were by how they performed tonight, but sadly the performance wasn’t quite there with Leeds taking control as they exhausted Hull KR in the Headingley heat.
Speaking post-match on Sky Sports, Peters said: “I thought at the start of the game I was really happy. I was happy for large parts in terms of effort and competing and physicality because that’s what we spoke about.”
Peters pointed to the early HIA failure of Dean Hadley, something that also happened in the Challenge Cup Final, as a possible reason but he also blamed his side’s lack of smarts.
He said: “We had an adversity at the start of the game and then it was just our smarts, dropping the ball and then they had double the possession at 59 per cent completion.
“You can’t give Leeds that type of ball. They’re always going to put that scoreline on you to give them that much ball.
“From an effort point of view, I’m sure there’s some tries they will look at and we’re not proud of, but, overall, they worked hard.”
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Hull KR suffocated by Leeds Rhinos, admits Peters
Asked simply why he felt his side could not keep hold or or get their hands on the ball, Peters responded simply: “Leeds.”
He added: “In terms of the way they suffocate you and in field position, but we sort of gave them field position as well. If you have a look at our yardage sets, the amount of times that we sort of didn’t get to our kick and then when we did have some good ball.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Leeds. They played very well and that’s the benchmark at the moment. They’re leading the comp for a reason.”
On that shocking star of 15 errors and 47 missed tackles, Peters said: “The missed tackles come from errors. We had that last week and we got away with it, but you’re not going to get away with it two weeks in a row, so if you have that many errors against a quality team like this, they’re always going to make you pay.
“As I say, I thought we worked hard and competed for large parts, but a lot of errors to work on as well.”
Peters also confirmed that the likes of Jez Litten, Sauaso Sue and Joe Burgess ‘should be back’ though he admitted that a couple had picked up knocks, with Dean Hadley certain to miss Magic Weekend after a failed HIA.
