Hull KR boss Willie Peters provides positive update on James Batchelor after injury scare

Batchelor lay motionless for almost 10 minutes as he was tended to by medical staff on the pitch at St James’ Park before being carried off on a stretcher in a neck brace and taken to hospital in what Rovers described as a precautionary measure.

“James has gone to hospital as a precaution but from what I know he’s in a decent way at the moment,” said Peters.

“When I spoke to the medical team they said he was in good spirits but because of the symptoms he gave initially, he needed to go to hospital. Initially he didn’t have any feeling but then it started to come back.”

Injury woe continued to pile up for Rovers with Lachlan Coote failing another HIA which will rule the full-back out for at least another week, while Sauaso Sue will also be sidelined after tweaking a hamstring.

Peters admitted his side only had themselves to blame for defeat to Salford after a performance littered with errors and indiscipline, which enabled Marc Sneyd to kick four penalties within a personal 14-point haul, while Dean Hadley was sin-binned for a high tackle.

“It was a tough afternoon and we got what we deserved,” added Peters. “We were lucky to be in front at half-time then in the second half there were too many errors and too much indiscipline.”

Salford coach Paul Rowley praised his side’s persistence after a frustrating opening period in which their almost relentless early pressure threatened to come to nothing.

Despite falling back behind in the 65th minute to a typically acrobatic finish from Ryan Hall, Rowley’s men responded with late tries from Ken Sio and Chris Atkin to claim their seventh win in their last eight games.

“We created a lot of opportunities in the first half and we really needed to capitalise on a lot of them,” said Rowley.

“If you had a team with a soft underbelly you’d start doubting yourself but we’ve got a good group that stayed with it and on task, and we got them in the end after some missed opportunities on our part.”

Rowley paid particular tributes to full-back Ryan Brierley, implying that England boss Shaun Wane may want to start looking in his direction when he names his squad for the post-season three-Test series against Tonga.

“He’s been the best full-back on the pitch in all of our last five or six games,” said Rowley.

“We’ve got several people who are quietly letting their actions speak louder than words, but at some point you’ve got to start looking at the end of the season and some selections there.”