Vice-captain Elliot Minchella says it’s a “load of rubbish” Hull KR have stopped playing for outgoing boss Tony Smith.
The confidence-battered Robins host Catalans Dragons on Saturday bidding to avoid a fourth straight defeat. Their dismal run largely coincides with Smith’s shock announcement he will leave at the end of the season. Before that, KR were flying on a five-game winning run.
They then defeated Wakefield but have since been embarrassingly nilled by Leeds (12-0) and Castleford (32-0) either side of Huddersfield (25-4) easily dumping them out of the Challenge Cup semi-final. Australian Smith has come under fire with many critics feeling he's lost the dressing room given his own players were stunned by the timing of his decision.
Loose forward Minchella, 26, admitted: “We don’t live under rocks - everybody sees what gets said. But I just think it’s a load of rubbish when people say we’re not playing for him. At the end of the day we’re sportsmen and we get paid to play for the club. While he’s our boss, we’ll listen to him, do his gameplans and we have ultimate respect for Tony.
"With a bit of bad form, people have put two and two together and said we’re not playing for him. But it is rubbish. In my opinion, he shouldn’t be getting the blame for our poor performances; it’s us players who go out there and make errors and miss tackles. It’s not Tony. That doesn’t change what he’s doing.”
The club moved swiftly to announce Newcastle Knights assistant Willie Peters will replace Smith in 2023. But the ex-Leeds and England coach is under mounting pressure now and in dire need of a win at the weekend. Minchella, though, is confident the Robins can just as quickly turn things around.
He said: “A month ago we were six from six and the form team in the comp. That’s sport isn’t it? A month later, three losses in a row and people think it’s a crisis. But it’s not for us. Not in our bubble. It’s just a loss of form. Every team goes through it. It’s about coming out the other end. We know what we need to do and we’re all on board with it.”
It will be tough against last season’s beaten Grand Finalists Catalans who have won four of their last five and dismantled Warrington 40-8 last week. But Minchella - who has recently signed a new four-year deal with the Robins - hopes playing in front of the Channel 4 cameras for the first time can see Rovers rediscover their fluent best.
He said: “It’s great Channel 4 have got involved with the sport. We’re just playing our part on Saturday, hopefully showcasing what we can do - and hopefully that sends us to the win we need.”
Meanwhile, Minchella is set to return on Saturday after making a remarkable recovery from injury.
He was initially ruled out for up to six weeks after rolling an ankle in the defeat against Huddersfield 13 days ago.
The ex-Bradford Bulls forward, only recently back from a knee reconstruction, said: "It blew up and got really swollen and fat.
"I had some scans done and it wasn’t very good. We did think I was going to be out four to six weeks. But looking at the worst case scenario, it could even have been 10 to 12 weeks so I wasn't very happy when I got told that. I’d almost got my head around the four to six weeks diagnosis when it all just settled down really quickly. Luckily it feels fine now and the function’s fine so it’s just a case of cracking on."
