Mcguire: Rowan’s a Rolls-royce for KR
DANNY Mcguire has described Rowan Milnes as a “Rolls-royce” and says there will come a time when Hull KR must figure out how to get all three half-backs in the same team.
Milnes is almost the forgotten man of the talented triumvirate after seeing Jordan Abdull and Mikey Lewis finish the season in the halves before earning England call-ups.
But Milnes showed flashes of his undoubted ability during the season, finishing with three tries and six assists in 11 appearances.
The highlight was his classy try against Hull FC, when he touched down his own kick after spotting the full-back was not at home.
On form, the 22-year-old makes the difficult look effortless and is easy on the eye.
Mcguire believes Rovers have three gems in Milnes, Abdull and Lewis.
“I’ve loved watching them this year, at different points,” he told the Mail. “I don’t think it was all plain sailing for them. There were some challenges along the way for all three of them.
“But what I will say is all three of them are outstanding lads. They’re all committed, all dedicated and all want to get better.
“Some of the performances Jordan put in, he really stepped up this year as a leader and found some good consistency at times by putting some good games together.
“We saw the ability of Mikey towards the back end of the season and know what he’s capable of. Rowan is like a Rolls-royce. He’s got natural ability and will be better for having another pre-season under him. We’ll see a totally different player.
“We are really blessed to have three players with unbelievable quality as half-backs.
“We need to make sure we manage it and look after all three of them.”
One of KR’S biggest challenges going forward will be making sure each half-back gets enough game time.
Abdull is virtually guaranteed a place in Tony Smith’s team when fit, leaving Milnes and Lewis to fight it out for the other half-back spot.
But it may not be long before all three are in the same 17, something that happened just once in 2021 - in the play-off win over Warrington Wolves.
“At some point you just want all your best players on the field,” said Mcguire.
“Sometimes you might have to manoeuvre it a little bit to accommodate that. Sometimes one of them may be on the bench and not selected but the good thing is there’s competition there.
“There’s a definitely a way of getting all your best players on the field, but I’ll leave that up to the boss who has to make those tough decisions.”