\n With Round Two opponents Hull KR participating in the World Club Challenge, The Wire were the only Super League side not to play last weekend but they return to action by hosting Wakefield Trinity on Saturday in Round Three.\n<\/p>\n
\n Before the game, Burgess addressed the media and discussed such things as\u2026\n<\/p>\n
\n . How the team used their time off \u2013 and how it will challenge their bid for consistency\n<\/p>\n
\n . The news that Luke Yates has penned a new two-year deal with the club\n<\/p>\n
\n . The prospect of facing a \u201cdangerous\u201d Wakefield side\n<\/p>\n
\n . Reports of young full-back Cai Taylor-Wray signing with Australian agent Isaac Moses\n<\/p>\n
\n Here is everything Burgess said in his pre-match press conference\u2026\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: You\u2019ve had two weeks off \u2013 it\u2019s a weird time to have such a break but there will be pros and cons to it.\n<\/p>\n
\n How have you used the time?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: We\u2019ve just done our job. It\u2019s a situation we had to deal with.\n<\/p>\n
\n The lads had a few days off \u2013 they had a few days off after the Saints game and they then had last weekend off.\n<\/p>\n
\n Any time to freshen lads up is good but we\u2019d rather not be here \u2013 we might have to play six games in August now, so we\u2019re going to pay a price for it at some point in the year.\n<\/p>\n
\n That\u2019s just the way the league decided to run it.\n<\/p>\n
\n Warrington Wolves have not played since beating St Helens in Round One a fortnight ago (Image: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: Do you think it puts you at any sort of disadvantage or otherwise compared with the rest of the league?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: That doesn\u2019t really matter. Not to us.\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: You\u2019ve spoken a lot about consistency through pre-season. Saturday is going to be a big test of that, isn\u2019t it? Not just in terms of backing up from a great performance in Round One but also having not played for a fortnight after it.\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: It\u2019s a good challenge for us and we\u2019ve spoken about it.\n<\/p>\n
\n We\u2019re not shying away from it so our actions on Saturday will be important.\n<\/p>\n
\n We\u2019ll see where we are as a group \u2013 we\u2019ve had a good couple of weeks to get ready and rest, and we\u2019ve had some good preparation this week.\n<\/p>\n
\n I\u2019m looking forward to seeing how we turn up on Saturday but the guys have been pretty open and honest about everything, so we\u2019re looking forward to the game.\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: Wakefield have had a win and a loss \u2013 it\u2019s fair to say they\u2019ve probably not really clicked yet but is it difficult to get a read on any team at this stage of the year?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: We know they\u2019re a very dangerous teams \u2013 they\u2019ve got some dangerous players and they throw a lot of attacking shape at you.\n<\/p>\n
\n Since I\u2019ve been at the club, they\u2019ve really troubled us so we\u2019ve got to get our job done and we\u2019ll be working hard to do that.\n<\/p>\n
\n They\u2019ve had a couple of changes too with a couple out, so I\u2019d imagine they\u2019ll be working on some things to counter that, but we\u2019re going to have to be very good on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wakefield Trinity have won one and lost one of their two Super League games thus far (Image: Allan McKenzie\/SWpix.com)\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: A word on Luke Yates\u2019 new contract \u2013 he\u2019s clearly a key voice and a leader among the squad so with George Williams leaving at the end of the year, should he be in contention to be the next captain?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: What I do know is that he\u2019s a great guy \u2013 I was really keen to bring him to the club and he\u2019s such a good guy to have around.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s a great role model for our younger players coming through and those guys are really valuable. He\u2019s very consistent, does everything really well and his standards are very high.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s a valuable asset and the club should be really happy he\u2019s committed for another two years.\n<\/p>\n
\n Luke Yates penned a new two-year deal with Warrington Wolves earlier this week (Image: Joe Richardson)\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: He seems to be the kind of \u201clow maintenance, high performance\u201d player that is a coach\u2019s dream?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: On top of all of that, he\u2019s great company as well.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s good fun and is one of the Aussies that really fits into the Northern sense of humour. He\u2019s a great part of our group.\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: There have been a few reports this week that Cai Taylor-Wray has signed with leading Australian agent Isaac Moses.\n<\/p>\n
\n Is there anything for fans to worry about on that front in terms of maybe positioning himself for a shot at the NRL?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: You\u2019d have to ask Cai and Isaac!\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s a young, ambitious man but he\u2019s firmly got his feet on the ground and understands he\u2019s got a way to go before thinking about any of that.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s just taking care of himself and his own future and clearly thinks Isaac might be the guy to do that, so good on him.\n<\/p>\n
\n Love Rugby League reported this week that Cai Taylor-Wray had signed with leading Australian agent Isaac Moses (Image: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: Going back to Luke Yates and in particular his partnership with Liam Byrne in the front row, do you think having a smaller prop alongside a bigger one makes the two of them harder to defend against?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: They complement each other really well.\n<\/p>\n
\n That will change as the year goes on \u2013 we had Jimmy Harrison in the back row last week but he\u2019ll eventually move into the middle to go with Yatesy.\n<\/p>\n
\n Having that variation is good but Yatesy might be smaller than Byrney and not weigh as much but pound-for-pound, he\u2019s a great competitor and I\u2019m not worried about the size of him.\n<\/p>\n
\n He\u2019s very strong-willed and we enjoy having him on the field from the start.\n<\/p>\n
\n Q: Ahead of another home game on Saturday, how did you find the atmosphere at the Halliwell Jones last time out?\n<\/p>\n
\n SB: I thought it was magnificent \u2013 I was as shocked as anyone else when the lights went off!\n<\/p>\n
\n I actually didn\u2019t know it was happening but the club and the board have done a great job of listening to the fans in terms of improving the matchday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The atmosphere was exceptional \u2013 but I don\u2019t think we should stop there. I think the whole town thrived off it and I hope we sell the stadium out a few more times this year.\n<\/p>\n
\n There\u2019s a lot more alignment between the admin and football sides which helps \u2013 we\u2019re working together on a lot of things.\n<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s a great occasion when the stadium is full so hopefully, there will be a few more times this year and we can fill it out as often as possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Halliwell Jones Stadium was sold-out for only the fourth time in its history for the Round One victory over St Helens (Image: Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Round Two opponents Hull KR participating in the World Club Challenge, The Wire were the only Super…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}