Hull KR players did not work together against Wigan, admits Tim Sheens

Hull Kingston Rovers coach Tim Sheens admitted his players didn’t work together as a unit in their heavy defeat at Wigan.

Rovers were on the back foot from the start and were 26-0 down at the break. Chris Atkin scored their only try at the start of the second half, but Wigan ran-out 44-6 winners at the DW Stadium on Easter Monday.

And Sheens thinks his side need to work more as a team, rather than playing individually.

Speaking after the game, he said: “We tried in spits and spats, but we didn’t work together as a unit.

“For 30 minutes in the first half, we competed well and then our right edge copped a bit of a hammering due to some death kicking from Wigan. I think they scored six tries from that sort of play and we struggled to rectify that.

“Chris (Atkin) kicked for himself a couple of times and we got a result off one. Everyone tried hard but we weren’t in sync.

“Players were running hard and tackling hard but we didn’t work as a unit enough and that’s something that comes from fatigue and lack of ball.”

Hull KR gave away 18 penalties in the game and Josh Johnson was sin-binned in the second half after they were put on a team warning.

And Sheens questioned some of the decisions made by referee Ben Thaler.

He added: “We haven’t won a penalty count this year and I’m pretty sure that I am right in that fact.

“We had a 6-1 penalty count in the first half followed by an 18-9 total and a sin-bin as well, which didn’t help us.

“I’m certainly not going to point fingers at referees but the sin bin was a reasonable time after the team warning for the next penalty. He obviously wasn’t very happy with us because the penalties flowed.

“I’ve been in contact with the league many times and they have said ‘that penalty shouldn’t have been’ and there’ll be some of those again. I was a bit disappointed with us in that (discipline) area, particularly with the high shots.”

Sheens revealed Robbie Mulhern, Ben Kavanagh, Danny McGuire, Andrew Heffernan and Shaun Lunt could return for Rovers against Widnes Vikings on Saturday.