Willie Peters reveals influence of world champion boxer and veteran duo in Hull KR treble success

Hull KR have secured the treble but head coach Willie Peters is already turning attention to 2026, a mentality the club have learned from a world champion boxer.

The Robins beat Wigan Warriors 24-6 and became just the fifth side in Super League history to win the treble and it came in a year when they ended a 40-year trophy drought, with their Challenge Cup victory sparking wild celebrations earlier this year.

Despite that, the Robins didn’t rest on their laurels as they aggressively went after the League Leaders Shield and the Grand Final, winning both to write their name into history and Willie Peters has now revealed how world champion boxer Jai Opetaia was a driving force for that.

Opetaia hails from Sydney and is the IBF cruiserweight world champion, a belt that he first won in 2022 and has since defended multiple times, and Peters has now confirmed that Hull KR ‘leaned on’ Opetaia as an inspiration for their own treble.

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What the 5am boxer attitude means to Hull KR

“We’ve had a plan for a while but the 5am boxer is hungry. They get up and rain or shine, they’ll run and do their training,” he explained post-match on Sky Sports, adding: “Most of the time when they win a belt, some of them stop.

“There’s a guy named Jai Opetaia who is a big star in Australia and we’ve leaned on him a fair bit as inspiration.

“It doesn’t matter who is in front of him. He’s just got a mentality that he’s going to push through and that’s what these players have got.”

Having retained that 5am boxer attitude since June’s Wembley success, Peters is now calling for it in 2026: “We’re going to enjoy this but it’s important that you never lose that 5am boxer attitude.”

McIlorum and JWH signing success sets blueprint for KR

It wasn’t just Opetaia that Hull KR have taken inspiration from in 2025 but also from their retiring stars Micky McIlorum and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves with the pair brought in for moments such as Old Trafford.

With so much experience of winning between them, they proved to be the final piece of the puzzle that got Hull KR over the line and to silverware.

Speaking to the press post-match, Peters explained: “We brought two guys in this year that we knew would help us achieve that (silverware). They just needed a little bit more belief in those bigger games and that’s what Micky and Jared brought to the team.”

Having now created that blueprint, Peters is hopeful the lessons learned from McIlorum and Waerea-Hargreaves can carry over, furthering the legacy of their one-year stint at Craven Park.

Peters explained: “We only brought them in for one year to help these guys go, right, this is how we do things and I know that these guys will do it again.

“I’m not saying that we’re going to win the competition next year. Are we going out to win all three? Of course we are. Every year you play, you want to win all three, but the learnings that we’ve got from just having people like that around the place, it’s priceless.”