HULL KR will press the reset button on their season after Saturday night’s 34-6 win over Catalans Dragons in Perpignan after coach Willie Peters admitted his players needed to be refreshed “mentally and physically.”
The Super League leaders and Challenge Cup holders have played “big minutes” this year according to Peters, who added: “Mentally and physically the players need a reset, they’ll do what they need to do from an injury prevention point of view and mentally switch off for a while.
“It’s been a huge campaign in terms of Super League and the Challenge Cup. We’ve played every single week, players have played big minutes and now we need to rest, there is no doubt about that.
“We all get a break, it’s so important to have that reset. My job is always on but I want to spend some quality time with the family and make sure we all get away, but you’ve always got one eye on what’s ahead.”
Peters decided to rest his club captain for the Catalans game, explaining: “Elliot Minchella needed a rest, we were looking to do it after the break, I wanted to give him a couple of weeks off because the players have got five days away where they can go and reset, we need that and he certainly needed it.
“It was probably a week too long for him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing; I was going to play him then we changed our minds and look what Dean Hadley did for us today, he probably had a man of the match performance and that’s what he does, it doesn’t matter where he plays, 8, 10, 13 or backrow, he’ll put that shift in every time.
“We came here to get two points and it’s the first time we have done that for a while. The monkey’s off our back now and the players get a few well-earned days off this week and then we come back and focus on the next challenge, which is Salford.
“It wasn’t pretty. We did a lot of good things in that first half and I was really happy, but the scoreboard didn’t suggest the dominance we had in field position and the pressure that we put on.
“We didn’t execute some tries and it was a bit of déja vu from a couple of weeks ago against Leeds, so we needed to reset at half-time and go build it again.”
Peters reserved special praise for the 1,600 Robins supporters at Stade Gilbert Brutus (the biggest away following of the season in Perpignan), adding: “The supporters are amazing, we stayed in town this time and I enjoyed that, it felt similar to Wembley. We woke up and saw them out and about enjoying themselves.
“It was good for them to be able to celebrate a win. To some people this is their only holiday every year, they choose to come and watch us so we need to make sure we perform and make them proud. The players did that and they can go away happy.”