A POSITIVE of Warrington’s Challenge Cup final defeat was that George Williams got through 80 minutes on his return.
Although it was his halfback partner Marc Sneyd who took the plaudits with his man-of-the-match display, Williams’ return from an ankle injury will provide a boost for the Wolves for the second half of the season.
He had not featured since the defeat to Hull on April 12, and his return to the side was well ahead of schedule.
“I was cramping at the end – I’ve not played for a while so I was battling for the last 20 minutes,” he explained.
“I was just happy to be out there. We did well for 77 minutes but it wasn’t enough. There’s a lot of heartbreak. To concede late like that is heartbreaking to say the least.
“You’ve got to give some credit to Hull KR but for us, to be leading for so much of the game then concede at the back end is disappointing.
“We got in the grind, we got behind Sneydy’s kicking game and he kicked them to death, but there was the moment at the end there – probably a couple when we got repeat sets. The last one where if we catch that ball, we probably go on to win the game.
“I’m sick of losing here to be honest, so hopefully next time, I’ll win one.”
It was Williams’ third final defeat, after last year and in 2017 with Wigan. Teammate Luke Yates also tasted defeat for a third time, in his case with a third club with a third different club (after Salford, then Huddersfield).
Williams was also full of praise for Sneyd, adding: “He was brilliant. I thought if he’d won the Lance Todd Trophy, we would have won, but that wasn’t the case.
“The positive is, once we reflect a little bit, that we’ll realise we’ve got a good team here. We want to push to more finals.”
Williams’s return was tempered by a nasty injury to Matt Dufty, who played on with a suspected broken cheekbone or fractured eye socket before being forced off late on.
Coach Sam Burgess told BBC post-match: “He tried to to get to the end of the game but it popped out, so we’ll be without him for a while.”