'We did it the hard way' - Hull KR boss Willie Peters relief as Wakefield Trinity chief Mark Applegarth bemoans slow start

Rovers had seen their top-six hopes dented by a run of poor league from and had to battle to keep bottom side Trinity at bay in the second period at Craven Park.

Louis Senior and Tom Opacic both scored two tries and Mikey Lewis added the fifth late in the second half as the home side struggled against their hard-working opponents.

Rowan Milnes converted four of the tries as Romain Franco and Luke Gale replied with scores for Trinity. Former Rovers man Will Dagger converted both of his team’s tries and both sides had a man sent to the sin bin.

Fouad Yaha was shown the first yellow card with 10 minutes of the opening half remaining but his debut was otherwise accomplished since signing on loan from Catalans Dragons.

Wakefield’s David Fifita was also sent to the sin bin with 10 minutes of the match remaining and his absence saw the home side seal the victory with their fifth try.

Peters said: “You always celebrate a win because they are hard to come by.

“Really happy that we found a way because those games you can look back at when you bank two points.

“The first half we played quite well, we built the game. In the second half that first set from the kick off they travelled 60 metres.

“The positive is we did find a way and it could have been a lot closer. Happy to get the win but there are some errors we have to improve on.

“They came at us, they moved the ball and they came at us hard. It could have been different if a couple of things went their way.”

Jez Litten’s pick up and pass created Rovers’ important fifth try which put the game firmly beyond Wakefield and earned him praise from Peters.

The Rovers coach said: “I thought he gave us some calmness and control at the dummy half area. He was in the game, I thought he was really good tonight.”

Wakefield coach Mark Applegarth took heart from his side’s second half performance but also bemoaned their slow start.

He admitted: “Very mixed emotions. I thought that first half we left ourselves with too much to do.

“A very mixed bag. We spoke (at half time) in the second half about putting the pressure on KR. If we’d have probably got it to within one score who knows.”

Applegarth was pleased to see his players respond in the second period when they reduced the arrears to 10 points with Gale’s sniping try from close to the home line.

He said: “A lesson to learn there, we can’t give a team of this quality that sort of head start.

“There are a lot of positive signs there but we can’t give ourselves four tries to chase against a side of KR’s quality.

“As soon as we did not come up with errors in our own half we started to get some joy.

“We have got to look at our try line and do what they did to us in that second half with the way they defended.”