Willie Peters was immensely proud of his Hull KR players after watching them beat Wigan Warriors 10-6 at the Brick Community Stadium.
The Robins boss still sees room for improvement though and believes his side have to become more clinical, particularly against the best teams in the division.
The east Hull outfit claimed their first victory over Wigan in five games to move six points clear at the top of the league with just five regular season games remaining. Dean Hadley scored their only try of the game with Rhyse Martin notching KR’s other points on the night with his boot.
While Rovers probably weren’t at their free-flowing best in attack, they were defensively sound for a majority of the match. Frustrating Wigan with their line speed, intensity and awareness, forcing the likes of Harry Smith and Jai Field to underperform.
Wigan put it together late to score through Adam Keighran, but that didn’t take away from a defensive performance to be proud of from the Robins and Peters could be seen beaming after the game.
Willie Peters lauds Hull KR defence
“I’m extremely proud,” Peters told Sky Sports after the game. “A great game, two good teams going at it and a semi-final type game but I’m really proud of the players.
“We started the game well. We probably need to executed more and that’s an area of the game we need to work on, especially against the best teams, Wigan, Leeds, Leigh, Saints, you need to make sure you execute.
“Our defence was strong. I thought we suffocated them with our line speed and we got a lot of field position which was good in that first half. We put a bit of fatigue in them.
“You can’t take a breath against Wigan, that’s the type of team they are, but I’m really proud of the committment in defence. It’s something we pride ourselves on.”
Asked whether the result gives KR a big psychological boost over Wigan going into the play-offs, with the potential for another meeting on the cards, Peters said: “I don’t look too much into that. Look at the quality players they have out, we have as well so it evens things up.
“We play Leeds next week and that’s the next big game and that’s the most important game for us. That’s our narrow focus.”
