WARRINGTON coach Steve Price reflected on a “gut-wrenching” end to his tenure as his hopes of heading back to Australia having won the Super League title were scuppered by Hull KR.
Rovers, led by Price’s predecessor Tony Smith, sealed an impressive 19-0 win in their play-off eliminator at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, and the Wolves chief admitted: “We got what we deserved.
“I never saw that coming. We were at full strength apart from (suspended prop) Mike Cooper and had everything going for us but we dished out our worst performance.
“Full credit to Hull KR, who came with some high energy and played some good football. We didn’t handle it. We were beaten in every facet.
“The amount of errors was atrocious. There were 21 in total. You are never going to give yourselves a chance doing that.”
It was a sour end to a four-year stint for Price, who led his charges to Challenge Cup success two years ago but was unable to deliver a much-craved first title since 1955.
That task will now fall to Daryl Powell, while Price will become assistant to new coach Craig Fitzgibbon at Cronulla Sharks.
“I’d like to thank all the fans who stuck with us over the last few years, I honestly feel that we have a fantastic supporter base,” he added.
“I’m very sorry for what we dished up, we’re going to have to live with it.
“There is a feeling of under-achievement. We put ourselves in a really strong position at the back end of the season to even get a top-two spot which we just missed out on.
“We had such a good 40 minutes last week (in the 40-24 win at Castleford) then we come out and dish up our worst performance.”
Price, who left out both Josh Charnley and Blake Austin against Hull KR, continued: “We have some exciting talent coming through the ranks here.
“Connor Wrench, Ellis Longstaff, Josh Thewlis. I think the club is in a good place with the kids coming through.
“I’ll be watching from afar and be wishing everyone all the very best.”
