Peters was a member of Kevin Walters’ coaching staff for the Ashes
Willie Peters has pulled out of the race to be England’s next head coach ahead of the Rugby League World Cup.
Willie Peters will not be linking up with Kevin Walters’ Australia side for the World Cup this autumn, the Hull KR boss has confirmed.
Peters worked as an assistant coach under Walters in last year’ Ashes, helping the Kanagaroos to a 3-0 whitewash win over England.
That series win was enough for Walters to land the job for the World Cup, which was confirmed last week, but the Rovers boss has no plans to join up with his national team once more.
That’s because the Australian is set to switch his focus on Papua New Guinea Chiefs in the days and weeks that follow his final game with KR.
Peters was one of the candidates for the England vacancy before he took up that role with the Chiefs, who will step into the NRL in 2028, and he recognises that the opportunity to coach in the World Cup would be a good one.
However, he also believes taking on another role to divert his attention away from the task at hand in PNG would be too much.
“No, I’ve got the PNG role and I want to focus on that,” Peters said when asked if he could be involved with the Kangaroos once more.
“This is everything, what I’m doing now. We’ll be heading back after the season and I want to go and spend some time in PNG and I’ll go and watch PNG play. I’ll go and do that at the end of the season.
“Really happy for Kevvie. I loved working with Kev, I learned a lot from the staff and the players and naturally, I would love to be involved in the World Cup with the Aussie side.
“I initially put my hand up to coach England, but once I got the PNG role, it was too much and I didn’t want to put myself forward. The person that got it needs to be in all in and it needs to be their priority.
“For the Australian team, they have a really good coach and I’m sure they’ll do well.”