‘Toughest win of the season so far’ - Hull KR boss on Leigh Leopards win

Rovers ground out a victory which took them third in the Super League table, moving above Warrington on points difference.

A try in each half from Tom Opacic and Niall Evalds, both converted by Mikey Lewis, were enough to see off the Leopards.

Peters said: “I’m extremely pleased, I think it was our toughest win of the season so far because of the way we defended.

“We put ourselves under pressure at times with some unforced errors, but we defended it well.

“We are huge on playing like that in terms of competing and in effort. We’ve worked hard for a long time to put in a performance like that.

“I’m hugely proud that they executed in terms of defence. In terms of shape, Leigh are one of the best in the competition and we handled that. That’s the toughest win of the season so far.”

Peters praised Opacic who was one of many standout performers the day after the birth of his new baby.

The Hull KR coach said: “I think Tom had some big plays and some big moments.

“He has a new baby, a lot happening in his life, but he handled it well.”

Rovers took the lead with 14 minutes of the first half remaining when a pass from Lewis found Opacic on the left. The centre rolled over the line to touch down despite being wrapped up by a defender and Lewis added the extras to give his side a 6-0 lead.

Leigh were denied the first try of the second half as Jack Broadbent and Peta Hiku forced Ricky Leutele to lose possession as he tried to touch down.

Rovers were also denied a try as Kelepi Tanginoa saw his effort chalked off for a double movement but their second with 10 minutes to go was well worth the wait.

Tyrone May kept a move going and both Jai Whitbread and Matt Parcell took in passes before the latter fed Evalds and he touched down, with Lewis’ kick completing the scoring.

Adrian Lam praised his opponents for their scramble defence and also bemoaned his own side’s poor finishing.

Lam said: “It was pretty tough. Still being in the game was a position we wanted to be in with 15 minutes to go.

“The rugby wasn’t pretty and the way we got there wasn’t great. In the last 15 minutes we lacked some quality to manage the game.

“I have got to praise Hull KR with the way they scrambled and the way they saved some tries. I thought there were six chances for us to score tries but Hull KR scrambled well.

“I thought the effort was there. I was really proud of that. We had three or four players who played injured and probably shouldn’t have been playing. We had a lot of positional changes and I was proud of the way we coped with that.

“I thought KR had two or three chances and they took two of them. I’m sticking by the boys, I think there are good times ahead if we keep up that effort.”