Warrington Wolves boss Sam Burgess has addressed what went wrong in the club’s second-half collapse against Catalans Dragons.
With the scores level at 10-10 at half-time, Wire scored first to break the deadlock and give the travelling side a 16-10 lead.
But then, a hat-trick from Lewis Dodd and tries from Tommy Makinson saw Catalans take a 32-16 advantage, leaving the Wolves questioning how they’d lost control of the game.
Further tries from both sides came before the end of the game, giving the Dragons a 38-22 win and two points many expected would go the way of the Wolves.
Burgess spoke to Sky Sports post-match and gave his verdict on the action. The boss believes his side were second best in most aspects of the game, something they will learn from.
“I thought they were very good. They beat us in most areas, I thought.
“We went up by 10 early, but weren’t quite at our best. I saw signs there that if Catalans got some momentum, they might get on top of us.
“It went that way, but certainly it galvanises the group sometimes when coaches move on.
“I think that happened tonight, but we were a little bit off in most aspects tonight… There’s no point dwelling, but we must learn.”
Jazz Tevaga’s sin-bin, Hull KR’s underrated star and very early Man of Steel candidates – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show.
Warrington Wolves suffer second defeat of Super League season
This game was the first the Dragons played following the departure of Joel Tomkins. Ryan Sheridan formally took interim charge, as he has done for the past few games, and Burgess believes that the head coach’s exit played a big part in Catalans’ efforts this evening.
He said: “They played with a lot of energy tonight. They’ve got a lot of youth in their team and I thought they were very exciting at times.
“We didn’t handle the ruck well. I thought, physically, they controlled us. Probably the most we’ve been controlled all year. So, you know, it’s something we’ve got to work on.
“But, like I say, it’s not back to the drawing board. We just have to look at areas where we need to be better and fix it up for Friday night.”
