The Wire would have gone top of the Super League table had they managed to make it five victories out of five at Leeds Rhinos on Sunday, and they looked well set to do so when they motored into a 12-0 lead before half time.

However, the hosts reeled them in during a back-and-forth second half in which the lead changed hands three times, eventually seeing out a 26-22 victory.

After the game, which was played amid testing conditions as wind and rain swirled around Headingley, Burgess lamented his side’s inability to manage Leeds’ strong second-half response but, as was the case after each of his side’s victories, refused to get too carried away.

“It’s a tough loss,” he said.

“It was a funny old game with hard conditions to manage for both sides.

“They’re a very dangerous side and we paid for not managing that in the second half.

“I was really proud of our effort to stay at it and keep challenging things – I thought we might have had a chance in the last couple of minutes, but we didn’t have enough left.

“I think I know my side pretty well – I’ve seen the work they’ve put in.

“Although it’s not the result we wanted, it’s okay because there’s a lot of us who are learning along the way.

“Ewan Irwin will certainly learn a lot from tonight and as a group, we’ll definitely learn. We’ve been picking up things as we go and win or lose, we’ll always learn something.”

Maika Sivo started Leeds’ fightback with two tries before half time after Josh Thewlis and Josh Smith had earned Wire a good lead before going on to complete his hat-trick after the break, with Jack Bird and Brodie Croft also touching down.

Toby King had briefly given Warrington the lead again after Sivo had completed his treble, with Smith then doubling his tally to set up a grandstand finale.

In between Sivo’s first two tries, however, James Harrison had a try chalked off by video referee Liam Moore for a knock-on, with the simple conversion likely to have moved Warrington into a 16-4 lead.

“Leeds are a very good side, but it was unfortunate with the James Harrison try – if he gets that ball down, it could have been a different game and they went up the other end and scored,” Burgess said.

“That’s how the game goes – you have to manage those swings and moments of either scoring or not scoring.

“Ultimately, we were on the wrong side of it.”

Burgess had made the call to keep faith with teenage half-back Ewan Irwin after two impressive outings in place of Marc Sneyd, with the 18-year-old making his most high-profile appearance to date.

And after a mixed afternoon in difficult weather – he kicked a superb first-half 40-20 but was part of a right edge that was tortured defensively – Burgess repeated his desire for Irwin to be allowed the time and space to develop even if it means him making mistakes.

“He had some good moments and some tough times as well, but some of the most experienced players out there had tough times as well,” he said.

“One thing I do know about Ewan is that we’re willing to be patient with him – the same with Cai (Taylor-Wray) and our other young players.

“At some point, we have to put them into these scenarios and see them at this level but with that, we have to realise that there’s going to be development and understand that they’re not going to be the finished article straight away.”