Rovers were unrecognisable on Saturday
Hull KR’s captain Elliot Minchella reaches the Royal Box after his side’s loss to Wigan.
Captain Elliot Minchella believes Hull KR will be better for the experience of Saturday’s miserable Challenge Cup final.
The Robins were thrashed 40-10 by Wigan Warriors at Wembley on a day that quickly went from bad to worse. Losing Dean Hadley to an injury after just a few minutes, Rovers went on to concede two soft Jack Farrimond tries before the break and collapsed after it.
Matt Peet’s side ultimately ran in seven tries against the east Hull outfit, who were uncharacteristic to say the least.
However, while the defeat and the manner of it were painful for KR, Minchella has vowed to bounce back in defiant fashion.
“It’s a contrast of the emotions from 12 months ago but no excuses, the best team won on the day and it didn’t feel too good,” Minchella said after the game.
“We have to take responsibility as players as who went out there and didn’t perform. It wasn’t a very Hull KR performance and we need to look at ourselves in the mirror, find out why and be better for it, learn and remember the feeling that we’re feeling now and use it as motivation. Disappointed.
“It’s not how we would have imagined today would have gone but we’ve had a great journey so far. It’s not done just yet but we wanted to send him out as a Challenge Cup winner and unfortunately we’ve not done that. The beauty of the cup is we have next week. It’s not October yet and we have a couple more trophies to go after. That will be our focus moving forward.
“The best way to react to this is some good old fashioned hard work and that’s what we’ll be doing as players and going after it. It’s a long time till the business end.”
Reflecting on KR’s discipline, which let them down at times, Minchella added: “You’re digging yourself a hole if you give penalties away against a quality side, especially coming out of yardage. We did that far too often today. A good team like Wigan make you pay for that and that’s what they did.
“It could be a mix of things but it’s down to individuals and us players have to take responsibility for that. We have to be cleaner in the ruck and not give the referee an opportunity to give the penalties. It’s not on the referee, it’s on us players.”