Willie Peters sends clear message as Hull KR prepare for Super League opener and massive month.
Willie Peters’ Hull KR kick-off their Super League title defence this week at York Knights.
Willie Peters is set to unleash his strongest available squad for the Super League opener against York Knights, with his focus firmly fixed on the immediate task at hand rather than the World Club Challenge and Las Vegas fixtures that follow.
The treble-winning champions named a strong side to kick off their Challenge Cup title defence last Friday, recording a club-record 104-0 victory over community club Lock Lane, running in 18 tries. Rhyse Martin converted 16 of those, setting a new benchmark at Sewell Group Craven Park for the most goals in a single match.
With a World Club Challenge showdown against Brisbane Broncos looming, Peters insists his squad’s attention remains solely on the Super League opener at the LNER Community Stadium.
“Next week – that’s our focus,” said the Hull KR boss.
“It’s all we’ve been focussing on. Have I started watching the Broncos? Of course. As a coach, you’ve got to look at a couple of weeks in advance.
“But we’ve narrowed our focus with the team to York. I’m certainly not making a [squad] call thinking about two weeks’ time, we’re going to go all out on Thursday.”
After an ever-present 2025 campaign, influential centre Peta Hiku did not feature against Lock Lane, while the club’s England internationals, along with forward Jai Whitbread, were also rested in preparation for a mammoth title-defending season.
“Peta Hiku and Jai Whitbread played a lot of minutes last year,” Peters continued. “I wanted to give Tom Whitehead and guys like that an opportunity.
“We played Jesse Sue and Dean Hadley for 40 minute, and they’d never play that. Then we had Tom Whitehead and Jack Brown play the next 40. Elliot Minchella played 50, and we had Karl Lawton come back on.
“Those guys that didn’t play, they’ve just been rested more than anything. The guys from England, they’ll be okay.”
Peters has also expressed confidence in the club’s preferred 17 for Thursday, with reinforcements on the way. Off-season recruit and 2023 Dream Team prop Tom Amone is expected to return for the highly anticipated clash against Brisbane at the MKM Stadium on February 19.
Peters added: “At the moment, we’re pretty settled – but there’s probably one or two we’ll have discussions about.
“Overall, the majority of last year’s squad will get the first opportunity. There’s some new guys that have come in and guys that have left, so they’ll fill that role. Sam Luckley hopefully should be back for Thursday, and he’ll have his opportunity if he’s okay.”