Feel of the new place (From Warrington Guardian)

Feel of the new place

ahead of the big date

WARRINGTON Wolves' players are feeling their way round the Halliwell Jones Stadium pitch this week.

Light training sessions and kicking practice is now taking place there and it is hoped that tomorrow, Friday, the players will make up two teams to play a full-contact match there.

The Halliwell Jones Stadium pitch is much bigger than the one at Wilderspool Stadium and time spent on the new ground is an important part of the build-up to the first game of the season against Wakefield Trinity Wildcats on February 21.

Head coach Paul Cullen says: "With a squad of 26 and some of the under 21s players, we can form two very competitive sides.

"If the weather doesn't allow, we may have to play the match at William Beamont. The pitch at the Halliwell Jones Stadium is still young and if there's a chance of spoiling it for the first game then we won't be able to play there in such a competitive manner.

"The light sessions and kicking practice are taking place at The Halliwell Jones Stadium. This will give the players a general feel of contact at the ground before we play Wakefield.

"In terms of the pitch, symbolically it's the full size. The pitch can not be one centimetre longer or wider.

"We need to be able to take on the best in the ultimate arena and it doesn't get any bigger than this.

"To be honest, it has been my only input into The Halliwell Jones Stadium - a pitch 68 metres wide and 100 metres long with seven-metre in-goals, because that's what it says in the rule book.

"We need to be able to adopt a style of play that can exploit these dimensions and I'm absolutely confident that we can.

"Wilderspool has worked well for us over the years and we played the pitch well.

"But, if anything, I think we may have outgrown Wilderspool's pitch. There were times in the trial match against Salford where we could have gone to the edge but we were virtually running out of room.

"The second try that Dean Gaskell scored came about from literally going from one side of the field to the other in two passes.

"I think that typifies the quality of the pass that we're working on at the club. We can go from one touchline to the other and still be as effective when we go to the defensive line with the ball. We'll need to have that and more at The Halliwell Jones Stadium. An extra four or five metres makes a massive difference.

"So the training sessions and hopefully the 'in-house' game will give the players the chance to feel the width of the defensive patterns and to see how wide we need to be in attack."