06 May 2023 , 06:37
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Furious Ian Watson blasted his misfiring Huddersfield stars and fired: “You need to lose your egos.”
The much-fancied Giants crashed to a third defeat in four games after being embarrassed and out-gunned 28-0 by impressive Hull KR. Hapless Huddersfield couldn’t handle the rain-lashed conditions or the red-hot Robins who raced in for five tries from veteran winger Ryan Hall (2), second-row James Batchelor (2) and Tom Opacic. With England star Jake Connor, Tonga stand-off Tui Lolohea and Newcastle Knights-bound Will Pryce in their pivotal positions, the visitors should have had enough class to compete.
But they bombed spectacularly with ex-Hull hero Connor coming up with a series of gaffes including a speculative pass that Hall intercepted to race in from 90m. Huddersfield badly missed the kicking quality of injured scrum-halves Theo Fages and Olly Russell. And Watson fumed: “We didn’t play wet weather football until 30 minutes in. We were too busy trying to throw the ball around the edge and into touch.
“It’s just not good enough. We’ve got three full-backs (Connor, Lolohea, Pryce) at the moment. It’s probably more my fault in selecting the three full-backs but they’re not thick players. And playing wet weather football you’ve got to be smarter than that. It's not working at the moment.
“We’re desperate to get Theo Fages or Olly Russell back out there for some control. But the disappointing thing was some people just weren’t competing. They just thought it wasn’t them. But it’s a team game. You have to put your ego away and do the right thing. Look at Hull KR. There's no egos there. They’re all working really hard and doing the right thing. They deserved it.”
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It is Willie Peters’ relentless Robins who continue to impress, clocking up a sixth successive win to remain just two points off top spot. Already missing England stand-off Jordan Abdull, they shrugged off the early loss of star full-back Lachlan Coote to a leg injury. Scrum-half Mikey Lewis, 21, effortlessly moved to full-back and hooker Jez Litten - capped by England last week - came on to run the show at half-back.
He expertly guided Rovers alongside Rowan Milnes who returned from a loan spell at Wakefield to come in for the crocked Abdull. Delighted Peters said: “It was arguably the best performance of our season given the chaos we had to go through. But the way Jez kicked was outstanding. He said he felt he’d played in a dinner suit but it was far from it. There were so many players you could mention. I’m really, really proud of them.”