Hull KR boss Willie Peters has provided an injury round-up for this week’s derby, whilst also setting a challenge for ‘superstar’ Mikey Lewis.
Lewis, like many Hull KR players, had his best game of the season last Friday against St Helens with the former Man of Steel scoring a hat-trick as he and Tyrone May linked up well to put in an impressive performance.
Whilst the attacking flair impressed Willie Peters, the Robins boss also pointed to a lot of the unseen work as being the platform for Lewis being able to put in such a dominant performance.
“I want to see more of that from Mikey because we know what he’s capable of,” Peters said of the number six’s performance when speaking to the media ahead of Friday’s meeting with Hull FC.
“He’s a superstar of the game over here. He’s still growing as a player, he’s growing as a young man and, you know, I’m proud of where he’s going off the field and I just want to keep seeing him work hard on his game.”
Hull KR squad bolstered by fitness boost for winger
Peters confirmed that at the moment Lewis is continuously putting in extra hours, with the fruits of that labour evident last Friday night against St Helens.
On his half-back, Peters said: “He’s doing a lot of extras now and he understands that to keep improving that he needs to do that and then I’m seeing it in his game and seeing it in his performances, but what I enjoyed last week was mainly around the little things that people don’t see.
“The kick pressures, he was diving on loose balls, he’s chasing back to make tackles and people probably don’t see that sort of stuff, but we value that highly and there’s no coincidence that his attack was so effective because it comes off the back of that.”
Lewis is set to feature in what could be a relatively unchanged Hull KR side with Peters confirming that no fresh injuries were sustained in that 52-10 win. Even better for the Robins is that two players are back, one through injury and another through suspension.
The former of those is Lee Kershaw, who Peters confirmed is set for a run in the reserves: “We initially weren’t sure in terms of exactly when it was, but he’s got through a lot of his rehab and our performance team are really happy where he’s at, so he’ll play reserves and it was great to see him at training today.
“I’m really, really happy for him. He’s a great person. He’s gone through a rough trot obviously with his ACL, but it was great to see him training today. He had a real buzz about him and his teammates had a buzz about them as well because he was, he was on the field.”
Karl Lawton is back in consideration after his three-game ban and there could be more positive news next week with fellow forward Rhyse Martin set for a scan on his foot.
Peters explained: “He’ll go for a scan next week and we’re then hoping to try and get him back for the Challenge Cup game.”
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