Rovers take on Leigh Leopards on Friday night at Craven Park
Hull KR head coach Willie Peters
Hull KR must make improvements if they are to get the better of Leigh Leopards on Friday night.
That’s the message from head coach Willie Peters, who saw his side bounce back to winning ways with a 38-6 win over York Knights on Friday night.
That result stemmed a two-game losing streak in which KR conceded a combined total of 66 points against Wigan Warriors and Wakefield Trinity and, with results elsewhere going their way, they now sit third in the Super League table.
Rovers were better defensively against the Knights but Friday night’s win was far from the perfect performance, with KR going through periods of appearing a little jaded with the ball and inviting pressure on themselves.
Leigh Leopards will pose much more of a threat on Friday night when Adrian Lam’s side arrive in east Hull and Peters wants to see more strides forward made.
“For us, if we’re honest, we look at the last two weeks and our defence wasn’t where it needs to be,” Peters said after Friday’s contest. “Down at Wembley they scored 40 points and then last week, we should win scoring 24 points I believe but we let in 26.
“There was too many points leaked in those two games but I thought we fixed some areas tonight.
“We play Leigh next week who ask a lot of questions as well so we have to keep improving but overall I’m happy with the way we defended.
“I always hone in on the defence but the players drive it and when they do drive it, that’s when you can just sit back and you’re happy.
“We probably haven’t spoken about and actioned the last couple of weeks the way we would have liked in hindsight. We spoke about it after the game. We didn’t like what we did in the second half with the ball but defensively we go home tonight pleased because we defended our line.”
One of the major reasons behind KR’s improvement defensively was the return of Dean Hadley who missed last week’s loss at Wakefield Trinity after suffered a head knock just three minutes into the Challenge Cup final the week prior.
“He always does,” Peters said when asked about the difference Hadley made. “When I first came over, Dean Hadley for me was going to be one of the first picked each week because of what he does off the ball.
“That’s the kick pressures and working from the inside, that goes unnoticed from some people but not by his teammates or us. We missed him, there’s no doubt.
“Some guys may have got exposed a little bit because Dean Hadley does a lot of cleaning up for quite a number of people. We don’t want to have Dean as the only one and he’s not the only one but he certainly leads the way.”