Warrington Wolves coach Daryl Powell says his team needs to “find a few more gears” as they prepare to take on last season’s two Grand Finalists.
The Wolves are up against Catalans Dragons on Friday and St Helens the following week and, despite a perfect three-match winning start to the season, Powell wants more from his players.
Speaking after Warrington’s 32-18 victory over Super League strugglers Toulouse Olympique, Powell said, “We need to find another level. We need a few more gears in the coming weeks and we were way off the standard we need today.”
Two tries for Josh Charnley (including his 200th Super League strike) and Toby King were enough to hold off a late comeback by the Olympians but the Wolves coach was far from happy with the performance.
He said, “We were scratchy, we lacked energy and we’ll review it and talk through all the reasons for that.
“We found it pretty tough in a couple of areas today and I think that’s been the tale of the season so far for us.
“We won the game but performance-wise we were way off and we’ll have to be much better this week.
“The right edge has been embedded and solid and played consistently for us, but the left edge has had to be chopped and changed.
“We’ve got some players coming back next week, which will obviously help.”
Gareth Widdop, Ben Currie and Connor Wrench were missing from the squad that travelled to Toulouse, and injuries to Mike Cooper and Stefan Ratchford will be a concern going into the Catalans game.
Powell added, “Connor couldn’t play for us today. We had a different halfback and backrower so there are some reasons why it didn’t really click.
“Gareth was ill but hopefully he’ll be okay for the next game, Mike (Cooper) got a knock in his ribs today and Stef had the same problem, so we’ll take a good look at them this week.
“Catalans are down a few middle men, which has had an impact upon them, but they are winning games. They looked okay against Leeds where Mike McMeeken stepped into the front row and he’s a big player for them.
“They are filling those slots well.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to shake off this game and learn some lessons from it and get stuck into the next two weeks.
“We’ve got a shortish turnaround with two training sessions this week, only one to work on anything tactically, so we’ve got a bit of work to do.
“Riley Dean (who stepped in at short notice to replace Widdop at stand-off) has had a good pre-season for us and he’s trained really well, so I had no hesitation in bringing him in.
“In the last few years we’ve been guilty of losing games like this, so we spoke a lot about that before we flew out.
“The trip can be difficult or awkward but I thought it was perfect today, there can be no excuses with that.
“We travelled really well, flew from Liverpool in a couple of hours and straight to the ground. Our preparation was perfect.
“But the fact remains that we were incredibly flat and we need to find the reasons why.”
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