Hull KR secured their first win of the Super League season yesterday to the delight of boss Willie Peters.
The Robins ran in six tries to defeat Huddersfield Giants at the Accu Stadium, with tries coming from Tom Davies and Mikey Lewis, who both scored two, Oliver Gildart and Joe Burgess.
An injury-ravaged Giants only manage the sole score, as Tui Lolohea touched down in the second half.
KR came into the game on the back of a hefty defeat to Leeds Rhinos in Las Vegas, but despite that loss, Peters opted to remain with the same 17 that played in the Sin City.
Karl Lawton started in the back row, moving Dean Hadley to prop and Tom Amone to the bench, but that was the only selection switch that the boss made, with him outlining his reasons for that post-match.
Peters opted to give the side a second chance, particularly after the majority of the team played in the World Club Challenge victory over Brisbane just over two weeks ago.
These players have worked hard,” the Australian said to Sky Sports. “As have the other players, but they’ve won a treble together, most of them. They’ve beaten the Broncos together.
“They’ve had two performances this year that, overall, they’re probably not proud of, but, look, I think, in life, you want to redeem yourself. If you don’t turn up to work and perform the best you can, you want to make sure you turn up the next day and perform well, so I just wanted to give them that opportunity.
“There’s guys here that want to play, and I’m aware of that, but I’ve got belief in the team today that they can do the job. Each week we’ll look at a different team if we need to, but I just felt that I wanted to give these players the opportunity to redeem themselves from last week.”
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Huddersfield Giants win “step in the right direction” says Hull KR boss
The Robins have taken longer than most to get their league campaign underway, and whilst they do have a game in hand, waiting a month before their first win of 2026 would not have been something the majority of fans would be expecting.
However, they have now broke their duct and are off the mark for what is a title-defending season.
It wasn’t a performance of KR’s highest quality, but it was enough to complete a competent victory over the Giants, and that all that Peters wanted to achieve at this stage.
“It’s obviously a bit of a relief to finally get some points,” he said. “Look, we wanted to compete hard today, and we wanted our defence to improve, and I thought we did that.
“Huddersfield certainly didn’t go away, and it certainly wasn’t the perfect performance from us, but, look, it was a step in the right direction.
“That (defence) was everything to us tonight. We sort of narrowed it down to our defence over everything. We believed if our defence was solid, then the points would come off the back of that. They got a kick try there but I was happy with the scramble and last week, Leeds went straight through the heart of us too many times. Leeds played extremely well but I think, at times, our defence was soft, and the players know that.
“This week was a step in the right direction. As I said, it’s certainly not perfect. We’ve got some work to do, but we’ll keep working hard.”
