Willie Peters prefers Datsun to Leigh's Lamborghinis as Hull KR stay "humble"
Boss Willie Peters says “humble” Hull KR will do their talking on the pitch and leave the razzmatazz to Leigh.
They battle it out in tonight’s play-offs eliminator at a sold-out Craven Park knowing the victors will stand just 80 minutes from Old Trafford. Rovers owe Leigh big time after Adrian Lam’s side beat them in Challenge Cup final golden point extra-time last month. The Leopards also had a record five players unveiled in the Super League Dream Team on Monday when they arrived in branded Lamborghinis owned by controversial owner Derek Beaumont.
Asked if he expected Leigh to turn up to Friday's showdown in the flash sports cars, Peters joked: “(KR CEO) Paul Lakin gave us a Datsun. I don’t know where our Lamborghinis are! You know what, though, I’m happy with a Datsun as that’s where we’re from and that’s who we are. We’re humble. And we’ll do that again on Friday. We’ll let our rugby league do the talking.”
Rovers have certainly earned plaudits for their work ethic and togetherness this season but they’re not short of skill either. And Peters insists what happened at Wembley - when Lachlan Lam’s drop goal broke their hearts - won’t be central to their plans for tonight. The Aussie said: “There’ll be some vision there that we’ll show from the Cup.
“But it’s not going to be so much about tapping into it. There’s already enough motivation there for the players. If there’s not, we’re in trouble. After the Wembley loss we said to them, we could actually still do something about the feeling we had. We knew we had time to make a challenge (for Super League). And the players have responded to that. The last five weeks they've gone back to doing what we worked on in the pre-season and I think that’s a really good sign.”
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Although they lost at champions St Helens a week after their Wembley blow, Rovers have won all five matches since, including blowing away Leigh 52-10 on their last visit to Craven Park. In comparison, Leigh have won just twice. Peters recalled: “In the Cup we didn’t handle extra-time well or the start of the game. You need to learn from experience and we did. Hangover or no hangover, whatever people call it, we put in a dominant performance last time against Leigh. We learned plenty from the Cup but that all means nothing now. We need to do it again.”
Hull KR boss Willie Peters (Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com/REX/Shutterstock)Just as Leigh became fresh winners of the Challenge Cup - they’d not won it in 52 years - Peters believes there could be a new name on the Super League trophy this time around. Of the top-six shooting it out, only champions St Helens and League Leaders Wigan have prospered before, leaving joint-top Catalans, Rovers, Leigh and Warrington seeking to make history. Peters said: “It’d be nice. The Challenge Cup proved one team is capable of it. That’s for sure.
"We had ourselves and Leigh who came in from the Championship. We hadn’t been there since 2015. And we had a new winner. I don’t see why it can’t be the case in Super League. But I’m sure St Helens and Wigan will have reasons why they think they’ll be there again. St Helens are back to being themselves again and Wigan had their setback in the Cup against us but have been undefeated since. Everyone who’s left can no doubt win the comp’.”
Meanwhile, the RFL are investigating after Lam failed to give a post-match interview to Sky Sports after Leigh’s 10-6 loss against Wigan last week - a defeat which ultimately handed fourth spot and home advantage to KR this evening. They are also looking at video footage which emerged on social media after that game of Beaumont - in a speech given to hospitality guests at Leigh Sports Village - hinting at corruption within the governing body after he said a controversial disallowed try cost his club victory.
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