Warrington slumped to their fourth defeat of the Super League season against Hull KR on Friday night, but Wolves coach Tony Smith has backed his players’ efforts and says he saw some good signs in their performance.
Warrington were edged 25-12 at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, after trailing 6-0 at half-time, in a close battle where the Robins managed to pull away after the break and capitalise on their opportunities. The Wolves have now won four and lost four of their eight Super League fixtures.
Smith lamented his side’s lack of punch in attack but said Warrington were not far off.
“I thought we built a good, solid game in the first half,” he said.
“I thought it was a good, even contest. We probably just needed to take a couple of our chances at that stage to build a bit of pressure. It was a good old arm wrestle, but in the second half we just didn’t build a game. We didn’t show the patience that we needed to. I can’t fault my guys’ effort, which was terrific. We just needed to be a little smarter. They [Hull KR] handled it pretty well, and they looked sharp at times.”
Smith said there were some positives to take from Friday night’s game.
“I thought our defence was better than it has been on some of the big players,” he said.
Warrington are likely to be without Simon Grix and Paul Wood for some time after both forwards were injured against Hull KR. Wood tore a bicep while Grix dislocated his shoulder. They also have Ben Westwood out currently with a calf injury.
“Paul probably needs an operation,” Smith said.
“Simon will certainly need surgery. I feel for both of them because they’ve both gone through a long and extensive rehabilitation and they’ve come up with fresh injuries. It’s not a recurrence of the injuries they’ve been fighting back from. But they’ve both had bad luck.”
