Hull KR boss Danny McGuire jokes about comeback after being forced into unusual decision
Rovers arrived at the DW Stadium without 16 first-team players and duly suffered a heavy loss despite a gutsy effort.
More worryingly in their situation, they saw Will Dagger helped from the field with a ruptured Achilles and Lachlan Coote fail a HIA.
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Hide AdTo compound matters, debutants Connor Moore and Charlie Cavanaugh suffered injuries late in the game.
Such is the extent of Hull KR's injury crisis, McGuire opted to finish the match with 12 men.
"Cootey will miss next week with his head injury," said the former Great Britain half-back. "He failed his test so that's an 11-day turnaround.
"Dagger has ruptured his Achilles so that's another half-back gone. I'm not far off playing but it's too late to get registered, so I'm saying this now knowing I can't play!
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Hide Ad"Our young prop Connor Moore who earned his opportunity was on for two minutes and off again.
"Charlie got injured at the end when he was doing really well and trying his heart out. He dislocated his kneecap.
"I wouldn't put George King back on so we played with 12 for the last 10 minutes. We still had a sub left but I just couldn't risk him because he's too valuable.
"I told Matty Parcell to go and stand on the wing so he didn't get injured either.
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Hide Ad"He didn't listen and went back in the middle but we had some key players still out there and the way the game was going I just tried to protect them a little bit."
The result damages Hull KR's top-six hopes but McGuire could not fault his side's effort in adversity.
"I honestly don't know what to say about it," said KR's interim boss. "It's actually laughable; if you don't laugh, you'll cry.
"I'm trying my best to remain as positive as possible. We got beat by 40 points but what I was proud of was that they were still scrapping away at the end.
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Hide Ad"We've got some guts and steel about us. We haven't got the best players in the competition but we've got a team that want to play well for each other.
"I'm really proud of them. There was no getting away from the fact we were outclassed tonight but they kept trying."
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