Hull KR send Tevita Pangai Jnr warning after impressive debut display

Willie Peters believes there’s more to come from Tevita Pangai Jnr after an impressive Hull KR debut.

The powerhouse prop came off the bench for the Robins and caused havoc as they snapped a run of two consecutive defeats by beating York Knights 38-6.

Pangai set the tone with his first carry, which was followed by a Joe Burgess try, and went on further rampant runs after the break.

It was an eye-catching performance, and one Peters was happy with.

“He’s only going to get better,” Peters said. “He hasn’t played for nine months. He’s been with us for a few weeks now and he’s not the finished product.

“He needs to obviously get fitter. And he’s doing a great job with his nutrition and that type of thing. So, look, I was happy with the way he played.

“I thought he changed the game for us in terms of momentum and got some offloads. And, yeah, I thought he was good for his first game.”

It was by no means a polished Hull KR performance, but one good enough to secure a result that moved them up to third in the Super League table.

“I thought we defended well,” Peters added.

“I thought with the second half we ran a bit tough for ourselves. We didn’t get out of our end, we built some errors. But I like the resilience we showed in the second half to defend.

“I think it was like 33 play-the-balls inside the 20s. So, yeah, there was a bit to like but a lot to fix as well.

“I liked how we got back in the game. I thought we started okay. And then last play, you know, we made a 40-metre break. And then, you know, it was against sort of the run of play. Then we went for a short dropout and they scored.

“I like the way we responded to that and I thought we found our feet, our groove. But then, as I said, the second half, we probably should have gone on with that, we had all the momentum. Then we gave it back and then we defended our line at the back end of that game.”