Hull KR struggled to deal with adversity on Saturday as they lost 28-10 to Leigh Leopards in the blazing sunshine. That’s the verdict from head coach Willie Peters, who watched his side turn in arguably their worst performance of the season to lose at the Leigh Sports Village.
After falling to defeat against Leeds Rhinos last week, KR needed to respond at Leigh but they couldn’t match the intent and ferocity of the Leopards, who scored six tries, three each half, on the day.
KR were already without Mikey Lewis through concussion protocols but Rhyse Martin was missing, too. And, in the 16th minute of the game they lost Danny Richardson to a lower leg injury which prompted a reshuffle, but KR never looked themselves throughout the contest.
Peters points to that injury and the try Lachlan Lam scored in the second half as decisive moments which KR were unable to react efficiently enough to.
Hull KR boss on his side’s loss to Leigh Leopards
“I knew what we were going to get from Leigh in terms of heir energy,” Peters told Sky Sports after the game. “Losing Danny Richardson, we had to move some people around, did we handle that well?
“It’s the peaks and valleys of a season, this is what happens and what makes this competition special. We just have to bounce back next week, work hard at training and we go again.
“You want to win every game you play, every team wants to win every game. You have to look at performance and I thought we worked our way back at periods and then we got that try and then the kick chase in the second half when Tesi Niu got on the outside and scored that long range try, that deflated us a little bit. We can’t let that happen, there was plenty of time left.
“Leigh played exceptionally well today and we knew what we were going to get from them. We need to re-group, we’ve got another week before the players and staff get a well-earned rest but we have one week that we need to dive into and make sure we finish this period on a high.”
Rovers received another blow late in the game when Jez Litten failed a HIA meaning he will miss next week’s game at Catalans Dragons.
“I don’t think Jez passed [his HIA],” Peters said. “I think Tommy Davies passed so we’ve got him and Mikey will come back next week.
“We’re not too bad, we’re like every other team at this stage of the year. There’ll be injuries and players go down, you don’t want to see HIAs and players going down with concussion but we’ve lost one and we’ve got one back next week.”
