WARRINGTON skipper George Williams will head to his second stint in the NRL, this time with the Dolphins, after leading out the Wolves at Old Trafford following a dramatic semi-final win at Leeds.
Desperate defence, the starting pack making over 200 tackles between them, saw the visitors narrowly home and Williams said it was a measure of his side’s belief and desire that proved to be the difference.
“There was so much on the line for us,” Williams said.
“We’ve come a long way as a group and got what we deserved – sometimes you don’t but I thought we did tonight.
“We’ve been connected all year but there’s still so much improvement in us. You could nit-pick, but we found a way to win and that’s what good teams do.”
He continued: “You are always chasing performance but, in these games, it’s all about winning. Sam’s (Burgess) message was to have no regrets, and you saw that tonight.”
Williams looked back at the serious neck injury that threatened to scupper his campaign, his return to the side in the latter stages of the season the catalyst to them making the Grand Final.
“It’s mad how it works,” he admitted.
“It was unfortunate what happened, but I got back playing and here we are.
“I made a commitment to myself that I’d do everything I could and leave everything out there. There were a couple of question marks about what would happen, but once we got the surgeon saying it was fixable then it was on.”
The player who has gained the most from Williams’ return has been teenage half back partner Ewan Irwin, nominated beforehand as one of the Super League Young Players of the Year, and Williams paid tribute to him.
“He’s 18 and heading to a Grand Final is pretty special. He’s growing in the game, he’s probably 15-20 games in, and Sam’s been a massive help for him but not too much fazes him, he’s really calm and that’s a big skill to have at such a young age, probably something I didn’t, I was a bit more frantic.
“It’s good to see, he just takes everything in his stride and has a great career ahead of him, but we need him to play next week for the team. He’s just a natural rugby player and calculated when we need him to be.”
Further looking ahead to next week, Williams noted that, inevitably, there was a weight of history that his side needed to overcome.
“It would be historic; a lot of Warrington teams have been here before and fallen at this final stage. We’ll do everything we can, regroup, recover and give it our best crack,” he said.
“Hopefully I can draw on what I achieved there (with Wigan), I don’t need to say too much to the group, we’re in a good spot and tonight will give us some confidence that we’re in tight games and it’ll be similar next week.
“We’ll grow from it, learn and hopefully get the job done.”