Tongues were set wagging when Joe Burgess was left out of the Rovers team on Saturday
Hull KR’s Joe Burgess sat out of the clash at Warrington Wolves
Hull KR boss Willie Peters has moved to explain Joe Burgess’ absence at Warrington Wolves and address online rumours about a training ground bust-up.
Rumours emerged on social media earlier this week suggesting there had been an altercation between Joe Burgess and Elliot Minchella on the training ground at Craven Park.
And, that story appeared to gain more legs on Saturday afternoon when Joe Burgess was left out of the team by Peters at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Burgess was at Warrington and he could be seen laughing and joking with players pre-match before retreating to the stands to watch what was a miserable contest from a Rovers point of view.
The pre-match suggestion was that Burgess was nursing a shoulder issue and Peters backed that up when speaking post match, insisting the winger wasn’t completely fit. However, the head coach also admitted Burgess’ performance last time out against Wakefield Trinity made it easier for him to take him out of the team to rest the issue.
“Joe last week performance-wise wasn’t great, he’s aware of that and his body is probably not where it needs to be at the moment,” Peters said. “It was a bit of a selection but he also wants to work on his body and make sure he gets himself right.”
Asked directly about the social media rumours about a fight, Peters laughed: “Who won?
“Apparently Joe knocked him out and as soon as I heard that, I said that’s not true.
“I heard that last night and naturally as a coach, there was nothing in training and then I looked into it and I could hear the players talk about that today. There’s nothing in that.
“We’re going to get all sorts now with who we’re playing next week [ Hull FC ], it’s no coincidence possibly. It’s all part of the game in terms of social media and how it works.
“When you’re in positions like this, firstly as a team that has been successful, people want to come after you and naturally when things aren’t going so great people come after you. Those people are people are probably not internal but there certainly no incident at training, I can say that.”