Hull KR

Jon Wilkin fires warning to Hull KR as ‘only concern’ for Willie Peters highlighted

by
Sam Cook
June 22, 2025

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin issued a stark warning to Willie Peters and Hull KR ahead of their 48-0 win against Castleford Tigers.

Ironically, his warning would almost pre-empt the performance with Wilkin noting possible burnout as the season goes along given the intensity that Hull KR are currently playing at.

Hull KR made it ten wins in a row last night when they beat the Tigers and any talk of a Challenge Cup hangover has been well and truly silenced with the aggregate score of their past two games being a whopping 116-6.

The aggregate score in every Hull KR game at the moment always seems to be beyond 30 points with the Robins not letting up defensively whilst continuing to pile on the points and that week-in and week-out intensity is something that Wilkin has issued a warning about.

“It’s a different pressure being consistently at the top and that’s where Willie Peters and this team find themselves now,” he explained on the Sky Sports broadcast ahead of the game.

“They’re the front runners and that’s a wholly different pressure to maybe being plucky second or third or fourth place and pushing for things.

“I just think when you’re sat at the top, you often face the best of your opposition and the teams that you play against come prepped to have to be at their very best and quite often produce remarkable performances against you.”

Hull KR warned of burnout as Wilkin issues message to Willie Peters

Wilkin would go further as he issued a direct piece of advice to Willie Peters, labelling burnout as his “only concern” for Hull KR, after claiming that sitting in ‘second or third and pouncing late on’ is easier.

He explained: “Willie Peters, there’s one thing I can say with experience that he has to be aware of, when you invest so much energy to be on every single week and the intensity is high, there’s a temptation for burnout there amongst the players and staff. That would be my only concern for Willie Peters, maintaining that level of intensity for so long is tough.”

Whilst Wigan Warriors are keeping pace with Hull KR, they’ve had some scares with Matt Peet’s side clearly not running at 100% yet with the champions perhaps better at judging their pace to be in top form for the play-offs. In contrast, Hull KR are 100% every week and those efforts could add up over the season.

Wilkin recalled his time with St Helens and their desire to break every record, something he believes that Willie Peters is intent on doing with Hull KR.

Using Justin Holbrook as an example, the former Saints captain explained: “He came in and not only wanted to win the league, he wanted to win it by a record number of points, he was transfixed with blowing the record points gap between first and second away. That was such a focus and it became everything to us, it was that important.

“I’ve also played under coaches who were indifferent and didn’t want to celebrate when we won the League Leaders’ Shield.

“I think Willie Peters has an opportunity to create history and a legacy that will last longer than his time will at the club. He’s done that with the Challenge Cup but he will want to do that by creating a record that can smash Hull KR’s records to pieces for evermore.”