Matt Parcell picked the pockets of Castleford as Hull KR made it five wins on the bounce.
The Australian hooker put his side ahead for the first time when stretching over on the hour mark. But Castleford - in Andy Last’s first game since being confirmed as permanent head coach - will be kicking themselves. They’d just edged in front with Jacob Miller’s drop goal making it 7-6.
But they made the cardinal sin of allowing Jordan Abdull’s restart to roll into touch. It gifted Parcell a chance to strike and move the Robins up to joint-second in Super League. Lachlan Coote slotted his second conversion and Castleford couldn’t find their way back.
Peters admitted: “We got lucky with that play. And in that first half, Cas beat us in pretty much every area. They moved the ball well, were more physical than us and beat us in efforts. They outplayed us.
“But what I was most pleased about was how we adjusted and went back to being the team we are. We knew it’d be tough. It was. And it was tasty. But we got there.”
Castleford fought hard and looked capable of only a third win of the season. But they badly missed Joe Westerman once the influential ex-England loose forward was taken off following a head clash with Kane Linnett after passing the ball in the 50th minute. The hosts thought he should have been sin-binned especially after their own Liam Watts was yellow-carded for a marginally late first half shove on Abdull. They defended a 6-0 lead perfectly when down to 12 men and gave ex-Hull boss Last plenty of encouragement.
He said he wanted the side to have the confidence to play the traditional ‘Classy Cas’ way and they did that looking to throw the ball around despite the wet conditions. They started brightly and took a deserved tenth minute lead. Coote dropped Jacob Miller’s steepling high kick and it was the Castleford scrum-half who picked up the pieces himself to score.
Paul McShane converted and it was the perfect start. Admittedly, in persistent rain, there were plenty of errors from both sides but plenty of action, too. Ryan Hall had an effort disallowed by the video referee after replays showed the ex-England winger failed to ground Mikey Lewis’ grubber.
“Last said: "We’d done everything we wanted to in that first half. But we go for that one-pointer and then came up with the error off the kick-off. The work done in that hour to get us in front is undone in 30 seconds. And Matt Parcell was the person we’d spoken about more than any other so it was a real, real coach killer and a kick in the guts.
“But it was a key moment losing Joe Westerman. It was a hefty challenge. He's being checked for facial fractures. Joe was really organising shapes which were threatening Hull KR. It wasn’t malicious but it was a direct head into the face. It probably warranted spending 10 minutes in the sin bin, albeit it wasn't deliberate. It was an unfortunate accident that can happen in a game. It's the fact that Liam Watts gets 10 minutes for a push on Jordan Abull and the same consequence isn't afforded to Kane. It's the inconsistencies."
Peters’ side finally crossed when Corey Hall applied a silky finish in the 48th minute after a cheap Mahe Fonua penalty.
It was the young centre’s first try for the club since his recent move from Wakefield. The hosts went early with that drop goal in the 58th minute. But it backfired.
