SAM BURGESS branded Warrington Wolves’ win over Catalans Dragons as “important”, as his team bounced back from defeat to stay second.
The Wolves took advantage of an ill-disciplined Dragons, scoring three tries to send Catalans back to France pointless.
“It was a really important win,” said the Warrington head coach.
“We wanted to get back in the winner’s circle after last week, and we wanted to play well in front of our fans.”
As well as stopping Catalans, Warrington had to deal with the losses of Arron Lindop, Josh Thewlis and Jordan Crowther.
Burgess feared the worst for centre Lindop, who had only just returned to the side the week before but appears to have suffered another serious knee injury.
“I find it hard to hide the sadness for Arron,” he said. “I am just hoping the outcome is not what we all think.
“I know how hard he has worked to get back on the field, but it didn’t look good.”
Thewlis’ injury prompted a spur-of-the-moment switch from Burgess, who moved Ewan Irwin to fullback – a move that paid off when he denied Guillermo Aispuro-Bichet a late winner.
“He hasn’t done one minute at fullback in training,” he revealed. “My instinct was that he could handle it.
“It was a good challenge for the group – losing two outside backs is always going to be hard to manage.”