IT’S fair to say that Warrington Wolves head coach Daryl Powell was enthused with his side’s 38-0 thrashing of Castleford Tigers at his old stomping ground tonight.
Powell’s men went into the break with a 24-0 lead before three second-half tries handed Warrington confirmation of a brilliant sixth win in a row.
For the Warrington boss, he had a special mention for halfback George Williams.
“I’m really pleased, the standout feature is that we didn’t concede a point. I thought we were really loose in yardage defensively in the first-half,” Powell said.
“I thought we defended our try-line well, with our big boys punching down the middle and finishing some tries off well.
“George was class and we lost Daryl early on which was a bit of a rattler on our rotation policy. I think it was a tough game with tough conditions, it was pretty wet out there.
“It was slow at times, but that’s a fair effort. There is a group of boys there that care about keeping their line in tact. But, I still think there is a lot of excellence to come from this team.”
“The way George started the game in the second-half with two repeat sets was great. The balance of our middle unit got lost a little bit which hinders us a little in attacking positions.
“Our control of the game and attacking intent was awesome. I said to the boys it’s time we put a nil on somebody, I don’t think they ever looked like scoring. It was a big effort.”
There was a concern when Daryl Clark limped off early on, but Powell believes he won’t be out long with Josh Drinkwater also set to return next week.
“He’s got a bit of a knee injury, I don’t think it’s too bad but he couldn’t come back on. He will get a scan and then we will take it from there.
“Josh tried to train yesterday and couldn’t quite do it. He’s got a bit of a quad tear but it’s very small. I would expect him to play next week.”
In the 77th minute, Matty Ashton forced Bureta Faraimo to knock on with the line begging. That was Powell’s standout moment.
“That was the standout moment for me when everybody went to celebrate that. You can see people in the background high fiving and going over there.
“That was a good picture of team spirit.”