Sheens: We’ve got things to fix up
Hull KR coach Tim Sheens says his team wasted a lot of opportunities in their match against Leeds, but was pleased with the Robins’ effort.
Hull KR went down 30-4 to the Rhinos at Headingley.
“I don’t think the scoreline reflected our effort tonight but it was a different kettle of fish to the Hull game,” Sheens said.
“We lost our stand off early in Jordan Abdull which threw us out a bit on our left edge.
“He picked up a rib knock in training but we thought he was okay to play. He took another bang in the same area though so we brought him off just as a precaution.
“That put a more pressure on Ellis to run the plays but the execution is on us and we’ll work hard on camp this week to fix that up.
“It gives us plenty to work on whilst we’re away and we’re still learning as a unit what to do in certain situations when things are going against us.
“We created plenty of opportunities though and that’s the main thing and I’m pretty happy with where we are at for our second game.
“I’d be worried if we weren’t creating anything but we could have posted 20 points tonight pretty comfortably.
“We’ve got some things to fix up like lapses of concentration in defence but a few things went Leeds’ way at times, like the quick tap and a couple of bounces of the ball.
“They scored from a quick tap that was debatable, from a loose ball and cross-kick, that’s how they broke us open, but there’s things you need to do to beat Super League teams, particularly Leeds at Headingley, and we didn’t do those often enough tonight.
“We’re still a young side and that was the first taste of player an opposition of that level so we knew we were in for a challenge before the game.”
Abdull is expected to be fit for the season opener against Bradford on February 5th.
“Jordan will be fine, it’s nothing major, and we seem to have come through unscathed which is the main thing,” Sheens said.
“We’ve still got Ben Cockayne, Graeme Horne and Jake Butler-Fleming to come back in and there’s a fair bit of experience there with the first two.
“Ben Kavanagh has come in as well and he will give us some leg speed and experience around the ruck, but he’s not done much training with Bradford before Christmas with everything that’s been going on. We’ll have to put some hard work in to get him up-to-speed with the squad and the calls, but the good thing is he played for Scotland in the Four Nations so had a month extra on the season compared to most.
“I’m expecting Bradford to come at us all guns blazing on the first weekend and we’re taking nothing for granted.
“They’ll have nothing to lose and they’ll throw everything at us so there’s no room for complacency.
“If any of the players thought it would be easy then tonight will stop us from cruising into that one.
“It might be a blessing from that point of view but we know we’ve got a lot to work on and nobody is getting ahead of themselves.”