Willie Peters explains why Warrington Wolves’ huge win was a positive for Hull KR

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters has argued that Warrington Wolves’ huge victory was actually a positive for the Robins.

Warrington saw off Huddersfield Giants with a whopping 66-0 victory on Saturday which saw the points difference gap between Wire and Hull KR slashed to just 16 points.

In the past two games, Sam Burgess’ side have cut the deficit by a whopping 60 points meaning that should Hull KR slip up on Friday night, it would almost certainly see Warrington claim second spot and that all-important home semi-final.

For many teams and coaches that would be another thing to worry about but Hull KR boss Willie Peters has argued that it will simply help ensure that the Robins stay focused.

Asked if Wire breathing down their necks was a good thing, Peters explained: “Well it can be kind of because you can go into a game and go, it’s okay if we lose, but we just don’t lose by too much and then they’ve got to get x amount of 40, 50 points so they won’t do that.

“If you go in (with that attitude) then you’ll lose the game, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve said that pretty much now, the remaining games are like Challenge Cups. You’ve got to win these games.”

Hull KR mentality to be tested again

Should Hull KR happen to lose to Leeds Rhinos on Friday, Warrington would only need a small win to help flip the 16-point advantage but Peters has maintained that his side are simply focused on the win, as they have been ever since defeat to Wigan in Round 25.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, the Australian said: “After we played Wigan, I believed that we had to win the two games to finish second. I knew that Warrington would score some points in their remaining two games and they did it on the weekend and pretty much scored nearly 80 points.

“Nothing’s changed for us and that’s a positive because our frame of mind was that we needed to win two games. I told the players and they understood that. It was a huge performance against a really good Leigh team and now we’ve got to back it up against Leeds.”

The Robins are becoming more and more accustomed to the big game situations and when at home, they’re near perfect in those situations. They’ve lost at Craven Park just twice this year, once on golden point to Catalans and once to Warrington early in the year.

On Friday, they’ll play in front of an extra 1,000 fans after the club erected a temporary stand and Peters has argued that his side have proven they can respond to the pressure.

Peters stated: “This team has proven it in the past two seasons since I’ve been here, that we handle those situations. We fell short this year and made the semis, but over the course of those Challenge Cups, when you’ve got to win every game, we’ve responded.

“I see no difference this Friday night, and I see it as a positive because you don’t want to be going and lose a game before you play semis. You want to be winning the last game and we’ve gone on a really good run and as I said we just fell short against Wigan but we’ve gone on a really strong run and if win on Friday, which is the aim, then we go in with some momentum. You don’t want to go in off the back of a loss anyway.”

Should Hull KR win that last game, they will earn a bye week and then host the highest-ranked remaining play-off team at Craven Park on Friday, October 4th.