Willie Peters has accepted the suspension handed to veteran Kiwi prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, and says he will not opt to rotate players for the Challenge Cup dress rehearsal with Warrington Wolves.
Veteran Waerea-Hargreaves received a two-match ban on Monday for a Grade D head contact charge against Huddersfield Giants, meaning he will miss the upcoming Super League fixtures with Warrington and St Helens.
He will however be back available for the Challenge Cup final showdown on Saturday, June 7, with head coach Peters opting not to waste ‘too much energy’ on the verdict.
The Hull KR boss said: “It is what it is. It’s unfortunate because if you fight those things, then he misses a cup final if you don’t win. I’m not going to give it too much more energy now because a decision has been made and we’ll move on.”
The current Super League leaders travel to Halliwell Jones Stadium for a Challenge Cup final rehearsal with Sam Burgess’ Wolves on Friday, with Peters confessing that he will not rotate or rest his players ahead of the showdown in the capital. Ever-presents Peta Hiku and Sauaso Sue were given a break for their recent match with Luke Robinson’s Huddersfield, but are likely to return to the mix for Friday’s trip to Cheshire.
Bill Leyland meanwhile has trained but is still feeling the effects from an ankle injury sustained last weekend, with a decision set to be made on the 22-year-old hooker later this week. “We won’t rotate,” Peters said.
“If players don’t play, then they’re not going to be fit enough to play or we don’t want to risk them. It’s not going to be a rotation sort of system. We definitely gave two guys a rest on the weekend who have played a fair bit and trained a lot. But this week, there will be players playing who are able to play.
“This time of the year, most teams have got niggles. It’s either they can play through them, or they can’t. We’ll have to wait and see with some guys. But overall pretty good, we’ll know more later in the week.”