ONE of Warrington Wolves' key strengths in Tetley's Super League VIII will be their versatility.

That was shown when the side comfortably coped with losing two backs to injury inside the opening 15 minutes of the Powergen Challenge Cup fourth round tie against Bradford Bulls at Wilderspool on February 8.

With only one back on the substitute's bench, the Wolves managed to re-shuffle twice and still build up a 12-4 lead against one of the best sides they will come up against all year.

Sid Domic was one of the key men in highlighting the versatility.

Initially, Graham Appo came on to replace Smyth on the right wing in a straight swap.

As Penny went off, Briers moved to full back and Domic came out of the loose forward position to take over Briers' stand off berth and allow substitute Paul Wood to step into the pack.

Then the message passed through for Briers to revert back to stand off, Domic to go to centre instead of Sibbit, who was to replace Appo on the wing so that Appo could cover at full back.

Domic said: "Last year we didn't have the back-up like we have now and that hurt us in crucial games.

"This year we've recruited well and we can spread players right across the board."

Wolves' head coach Paul Cullen added: "I thought to be 12-4 up after 36 minutes when we had lost a winger and a full back, that no-one could plan for, was pleasing.

"We made five positional switches for one substitution and to play as well as we did under those circumstances augurs well for the future for us."

Against Bradford, the team then had to cope with losing three different players to sin-binnings.

Cullen said: "Having three different men sin-binned is even more of a disadvantage than having one man sent off for 30 minutes in my view.

"Every time one of the three went off, we had to adapt differently.

"All of this throws a side into disarray.

"We didn't collapse defensively although Bradford had us on the run because of the difficult circumstances.

"But for the first 35 minutes I was very happy with our defensive shape, organisation and effort.

"We completely shut down the Bradford off-load game - we'd done an awful lot of work on locking that ball-carrying arm - but as the game wore on those positional changes and the sin-binnings took their toll.

"Your best position is to have your best guys in their correct positions. But in the circumstances we found ourselves against Bradford there was a willingness to work and scramble and I think the team coped manfully for it."