Rovers went down 40-10 against Wigan at Wembley
Hull KR’s Peta Hiku dejected after his side’s loss to Wigan Warriors(Image: SW Pix)
A dejected Willie Peters says his Hull KR side were unrecognisable from their usual selves and that hurts as much as anything as they lost their grip on the Challenge Cup.
Rovers were beaten 40-10 by Wigan Warriors on a sweltering day at Wembley as last year’s winners surrendered the trophy in an unaccustomed manner with a flat display as they wilted in the London heat.
Having battled back with a late first-half try to offer encouragement in a half Wigan dominated the chances in, Rovers were cut open with ease after the break to go down to the largest margin of defeat in a cup final since their loss to Leeds Rhinos 11 years ago.
“We are all pretty flat at the moment,” said Peters, with his demeanour certainly echoing that emotion.
“I thought Wigan were outstanding and I don’t want to take that away from them, but in various parts of that game it just wasn’t us. We value fighting to the end and there were a few times where we stopped a little bit and the hungrier side certainly won.
“We didn’t want to battle enough and felt sorry for ourselves and didn’t handle that.”
Rovers struggled to get going in the contest, but were disrupted early on in losing Dean Hadley to a head injury in the first couple of minutes.
“We all need to take responsibility and I told the players I’ll be the first person to accept responsibility for my end, but it is important the players do that too,” added Peters.
“Some people let the conditions impact on how they were feeling and we looked flat.
“Dean was going to play the full game so it hurts and that contributes as well. There were guys there having to play bigger minutes than normally, but that’s not an excuse.”