Willie Peters’ glowing praise for Jack Broadbent as seminal training ground moment revealed

Hull KR boss Willie Peters has revealed Jack Broadbent was the standout player in a dismal training session ahead of Saturday’s win at Leigh, praising the utility’s attitude having been told he would be benched.

Broadbent had started Rovers’ last 11 games prior to the trip to the Leopards’ Den, with full-back Arthur Mourgue sidelined through a ruptured pectoral suffered in February’s World Club Challenge victory over NRL kings Brisbane Broncos.

Catching the eye over the last few weeks in particular, head coach Peters had made the difficult decision to drop Broadbent to the bench at Leigh, with Mourgue making his long-awaited return.

But as it turned out, Broadbent was needed to help see out what turned out a humdinger of a Super League encounter, with Mourgue forced off with what could yet be a recurrence of that pec injury.

Willie Peters’ glowing praise for Jack Broadbent as seminal training ground moment revealed

Broadbent entered the action with 18 minutes left on the clock, and came up with some big moments to help Rovers over the line to a 20-16 victory on the road.

Post-match, boss Peters had plenty of praise for the 25-year-old as he said: ” Look what he did when he came on the field, and (look) at some of the plays he came up with.

“Naturally, he was upset during the week, but he was our best trainer in terms of effort and attitude.

“We had a poor main session this week, and I highlighted (Broadbent’s positive attitude in the session) at the time.

“You could do a poll of who people want to play, and a lot of people might say Jack Broadbent should be in the team, and rightly so.”

Batley-born Broadbent joined KR midway through the 2024 campaign, and has now made 59 appearances in their colours.

Having helped the Robins to an eighth consecutive victory across all competitions on Saturday, there’s now a real possibility he will be their starting full-back at Wembley in the Challenge Cup final at the end of this month.

Peters continued: “He still had the effort and attitude to do what he did for us at training (after being dropped to the bench), and his skipper just gave him a rap for that in front of the team.

“He’s matured a lot, he’s grown a lot and he’s important to what we do.

“Jack is so valuable to our team, and (leaving him out) is probably the hardest decision I’ve had to make in coaching so far.”