Willie Peters’ reaction to Challenge Cup heartbreak

Leigh Leopards are your 2023 Challenge Final winners but Hull KR would have been deserving winners themselves.

They came up short even though they looked like potential winners when they crossed for a 79th minute try through Matt Parcell.

That levelled matters and sent the game to golden point and it felt like they had the momentum, but they went on to lose.

Willie Peters has addressed the defeat after the game:

“I’m very proud of the players. I’m extremely proud of the players. We went through a lot in that game, and we didn’t handle that golden point all that well.

“We did, we have previously, but if you look at the 80 minutes and some things that sort of went against us at times, but we just hung in there, and it just proves and shows the fight in this team and the character in the side to keep going to the end there and lock it up, and then unfortunately we lose in golden points.

“So we had our joys a couple of times, didn’t we? But obviously this is hard to take. But really proud of the players.”

He underlined his pride speaking after the game as well:

“Yeah, absolutely, very, very proud, you can’t not. We spoke before the game, no regrets, don’t regret in terms of your individual performance and that’s around effort and competing. I thought all 17 players did that tonight.

“There’s no doubt we’re going to be disappointed and it’s a disappointed shed. Of course, we just lost a final but we also spoke about that we’ve got six, seven games to go in the Super League season and you can push and try and get to the finals and then see how we go off the back of that.”

Peters should be commended for what he has achieved at the club in 2023. They look like a team on the up and could soon develop into a top contender.

We can only hope this isn’t a set back for the Robins as they hope to grow into a truly special team in the Super League.