Willie Peters dedicated Hull KR’s dominant 68-6 win over Catalans Dragons to the supporters, who created a party atmosphere for their Wembley heroes.
A record crowd filled Sewell Group Craven Park, made up entirely of home fans, with celebrations taking place both before and after the match following last week’s historic Challenge Cup victory.
Despite days of celebrations, Rovers showed no signs of a hangover, delivering a 12-try performance against Catalans. The visitors had captain Ben Garcia sent off midway through the first half for punching Elliot Minchella and Mikey Lewis. Franck Maria was also sent to the sin-bin for high contact on Sauaso Sue, who later passed a head injury assessment.
Sue, who was cleared of a spitting allegation earlier in the week, scored a brace of tries for only the second time in his career. James Batchelor and Mikey Lewis also scored twice, alongside further four-pointers from Tom Davies, Kelepi Tanginoa, Jack Broadbent, Noah Booth, Jai Whitbread and Tyrone May. Arthur Mourgue converted 20 points against his former club.
Having regained his voice after last week’s Wembley win, Peters dedicated the triumph to the fans. The result marked Catalans’ heaviest-ever Super League defeat and saw them surpass Wakefield’s Super League record of 259 minutes without scoring a try.
Peters said: “It was a bit of a scratchy start, but I’m really happy with the way we found our groove. We spoke about tonight, and this is for the fans, we had our celebration last week. We wanted to give these fans something that they deserve.”
Rovers maintain their form at the top of the Super League table, with destiny firmly in their own hands.
“Looking at the screen [inside the ground, showing the Challenge Cup Final], we want more of it,” Peters added.
“There’s a lot of hard work you have to do to get that. We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves. The boys will enjoy this, it’s for a lot of people.
“Today [Friday night] is a celebration of last week, and then back to business tomorrow.”