WILLIE PETERS admitted “the hungriest team won” after Wigan Warriors regained the Challenge Cup with an emphatic 40-10 triumph at Wembley.
His Hull KR side came into the final on a nine-match winning run but were comprehensively outplayed.
Wigan lost last season’s Super League Grand Final to the Robins and Peters said their determination for revenge was evident.
“We just played against a team that watched us lift the trophy and spent the whole pre-season hating us. You could see, it was evident,” said the coach.
“I’d like to think we can replicate that (fuel) and finish on our terms at the back end of the year and be as hungry as they were.
“They were better than us in a lot of areas. There were moments we didn’t want to bat it out.
“The hungriest team wins. We talk about that regularly. I’m not putting this on the players, I put it on myself.
“Combine hunger with a clinical performance like they just did, that’s why they lifted a trophy.
“I’ll take responsibility and the players need to take responsibility for themselves as well. When we do that, we’ll be able to move forward.
“We’re in a decent position in Super League. We’ve just got to regroup. We’ve got to own that performance but we can’t dwell on it. I’m looking forward to seeing how we respond next week at Wakefield.”
Hull KR lost workhorse forward Dean Hadley to a head knock inside three minutes while star halfback Mikey Lewis was hampered by an apparent ankle injury from midway through the first half.
Peters said of Hadley: “He’s okay. He was going to play the full game so it hurts your rotation.
“There were guys playing bigger minutes than they would normally, but that’s no excuse for the result. We needed to perform a lot better.”
On Lewis, Peters added: “He was saying he was okay to play on so we left him out there. I can’t give you too much about it.”