The Robins got over the line for an eighth derby win over Hull FC
Hull KR celebrate the win at Hill Dickinson Stadium(Image: Getty)
Hull KR boss Willie Peters hailed the fight and grit his side showed to claim an eighth straight derby win over Hull FC.
The Robins beat the Black and Whites 26-12 at Magic Weekend, with tries coming from Mikey Lewis, Rhyse Martin, Jai Whitbread and Tyrone May. It was a win they needed too after last week’s defeat to Leeds Rhinos as they battle to keep hold of their spot in the top six.
They didn’t have things all their own way at Hill Dickinson Stadium, though, with Hull enjoying strong spells either side of the break and bagging tries of their own through Jake Arthur and Tom Briscoe.
Going into the final 20 minutes of the game with the scores level at 12-12, Hull were the ascendency and looked more capable of winning the game, but Rovers fought back to claim the win they needed and retain their stranglehold on the city of Hull, despite missing a raft of key men.
And, while Willie Peters admits improvements need to be made ahead of next weekend’s clash with Wakefield Trinity, the head coach is confident that his side can now kick on.
“We knew in terms of personnel in the middle that we lacked depth and we have to move people around,” Peters said after the game. “We had Karl Lawton in the middle which is not his number one spot, I thought he did a tremendous job.
“I thought Jai Whitbread as outstanding. The middles we had all did their job.
“When it got to 12-12, they had the momentum, the crowd were loud and we just found a way, that’s the part that I’ve told the players that we need to take that going into next week because there’s some teams that would have lost that game, but we found a way.
“It wasn’t perfect, the start of the second half, we spoke about giving ourselves a chance and getting in that cycle and then we gave the six again away and they scored. It wasn’t perfect but I liked the fight we showed.”
He added: “We needed to find a way to win today, we needed to grind out a win. There’s no doubt our attack today wasn’t fluid and it needs to improve but we fought and that’s what I’m happy about. When it got tricky and tough, the players leant into it.
“Going into the game there was a lot of talk about where we were at but these are the games you get a lot of satisfaction out of because you learn a lot about players and their character. I learnt more today about the players. Players wanted the opportunity for more minutes and they took it.”