Hull KR boss on Bill Leyland injury, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ yellow and selection decisions

Willie Peters was pleased with the patience his Hull KR side showed to record a 34-0 win over Huddersfield Giants on Saturday night.

Despite what the scoreline might suggest, the Robins were made to work for the result at Craven Park with Huddersfield’s remaining resolute and dogged in defence for an hour. Joe Burgess’ first half effort was the only score in the game until the 59th minute when Mikey Lewis forced his way through.

That try opened the floodgates as Huddersfield crumbled away, with Tyrone May, Kelepi Tanginoa, Jack Brown scoring before Burgess found a second with four minutes remaining.

It was a tough watch at times at Craven Park, but Peters was happy to see his side get over the line.

“I’m happy with the result there’s no doubt about that,” Peters said after the game. “We knew Huddersfield were going to turn up today, they’ve got their squad back together, they’ve done it tough for the majority of the year.

“We played against a team that were ready to play and we wasn’t overly happy with what we did in the first half, mainly around our attack and last plays, but defensively we were very solid to get the zero. We overplayed in the first half but we were patient in the second half.

“They work hard for each other, (defence) is an area we pride ourselves in. Danny Ward is leading our defence and does a great job but all our coaches drive it and the players are the ones that execute it and do it every week.”

Willie Peters explains Hull KR selection choice

Peters raised eyebrows with his selection, with Peta Hiku and Sauaso Sue being rested for the game with the Challenge Cup final on the horizon.

“I wanted to give an opportunity to Noah, it’s about developing our young guys and I thought there was an opportunity to rest Peta, he’s played every game and been in every session,” Peters said. “Jesse has been similiar.

“The way those guys train and then play every week, sometimes they need a spell. With the Challenge Cup, there’s only a certain amount of players we can select from because obviously their cup tied and injured players as well. I thought it was a good opportunity.”

Hull KR did have one injury concern to emerge from the game, though, with Bill Leyland picking up an ankle issue on the half-time hooter. He had to be helped down the tunnel after the first half, but he recovered to step back into the fray for the final five minutes of the contest.

Peters wasn’t able to clear him of an injury after the game, though: “I heard he couldn’t go back on and that’s why we didn’t put him on, late into half-time I was told he could go back on after being told he couldn’t, but I thought keep him off.

“Just speaking to him then he’s not sure how it is so I’m not 100 per cent sure and I can’t give the correct information until we look at it tomorrow.”

Peters may well be sweating on Monday’s disciplinary verdict too with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves being shown a yellow card for a high shot on Matty English that left him unable to continue.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Peters added when asked if he thought the challenge would be sin-bin sufficient. “It’ll go to the panel and they’ll have a look at it and we’ll see off the back of that. I don’t know what the comms were around being a yellow and all that kind of stuff. I just went onto what are we going to do now in terms having 12.”