Willie Peters was left incredibly pleased with how his Hull KR side bounced back from 12-0 down to defeat rivals Hull FC.
Conceding two tries in the opening seven minutes, it looked as though the Robins were in for an extremely long night, with their starts to games being incredibly poor as of late.
However, they turned up and got done what they needed to do, winning 34-20 in the end. Arthur Mourgue and Tom Amone both scored before the half-time hooter to level the game at the break, before tries from Joe Burgess, Jack Broadbent and Jordan Dezaria sealed the win.
Asked by Sky Sports if it was a “relieving” victory, Peters said: “Yeah, look, I think it is.
“Naturally, from the start that we had, that could have got ugly, but gee, they showed a lot of fight. That’s what I was most proud of, to get back in the game at 12-all at halftime, and then I thought, again it wasn’t perfect, but there was some fight there, and that’s what I asked for from last week.
“I wanted to see some fight from the whole group, and they certainly did that.”
Pre-match he spoke about how he likes to remain calm, but after the opening seven minutes, Peters could be seen acting anything other than that, with messages being shouted down to the sidelines after poor execution from his side.
He said: “[The cameras] went up to me and I wasn’t calm, I saw that, but no, you’re not calm in the game, you need to be calm during the week and when things get a bit hectic.
“As I said before the game, I think where we’re at as a club, it’s new to us and doing what we did last year, we’re in a different position where teams have hunted us this year, and we find ourselves outside the six.
“It’s new territory, it’s a great challenge, so we’re going to learn a lot about ourselves, and the club will at the back end of the year, but as I said, we want to review it then, not now. There’s still some fight left.”
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Hull KR boss puts an end to “disconnect” speculation
Over the past week or so, rumours have been circling about discontent and a disconnect within the Robins camp. Reports emerged saying that Joe Burgess and skipper Elliot Minchella had been at the centre of that dispute, and legs grew to that story when Burgess missed out on selection last week.
However, the win tonight and Burgess’ unique try celebration showed that the morale in the KR camp is a good one, and they are all positive as they head towards the finals.
“There’s no disconnect,” Peters insisted. “When I use the word disconnect, I’m talking about on the field at times.
“We’re a connected group. You don’t do what we’ve done if you’re not connected and not a close group. Naturally, things are going to get said, but look, one thing I’m strong about is being connected because the most connected teams win – simple as that.
“You look at all the great teams, they’re connected so if we weren’t connected, you don’t come back and win that game tonight.”
Commenting on Burgess’ fun celebration that saw him and Minchella shadow box each other, he replied: “Yeah, I wasn’t gonna laugh at the time, I needed us to get ahead, but yeah, he’s a character, isn’t he? He adds a bit of character to the game.”
