WARRINGTON Wolves made comfortable progress in the Challenge Cup with their second victory over London Broncos in the space of a week.

Having won 58-4 in Super League in the capital last weekend, The Wire's 42-0 victory at The Halliwell Jones Stadium took them to exactly 100 points scored across the two fixtures.

It allowed them to book their spot in the quarter-final draw, which takes place on Monday evening.

Our Wire reporter Matt Turner picked out five key talking points from the game here...

 

A professional performance

There may not have been any Challenge Cup shocks this weekend, but a few of the big boys made heavy weather of ties many considered straightforward.

That was particularly true of Wigan Warriors, who were given quite a fright by Sheffield Eagles before eventually pulling away on Friday night.

With that in mind, it was pleasing to see Warrington Wolves avoid falling into the trap by delivering an efficient and professional performance.

The result was never in doubt quite literally from the first minute onwards, with the very first set of the game leading to Josh Thewlis’ opening try and from that point, it was a case of how many Wire would score.

London were definitely much improved on what they showed six days prior in the capital, but Warrington showed up with the right attitude.

Big tick for the defence

Wire piled on the points once again but as Sam Burgess himself said post-match, perhaps the most pleasing part was the zero they conceded.

They had to ride their luck at times, particularly in the second half when Matt Dufty was beaten in the air by Alex Walker only for the London full-back to loose grip of the ball in the in-goal.

They also had to scramble, the best example of that being Matty Ashton somehow holding Gideon Boafo up over the line with the score at 6-0.

Defensively, they were tested much more than they had been the previous week but they were aggressive, organised and connected both in the middle and on the edges.

Greater tests are to come but structurally at least, Burgess will be pleased with what he saw off the ball.

Try Tai-me

Wire fans finally got a look at their new centre, and they will have been pleased with what they saw.

Rodrick Tai may still be well short of full fitness but the Papua New Guinean still produced an encouraging display on both sides of the ball.

In marking the occasion with a try, he demonstrated the pace and power that was promised when his signature was confirmed while it was his deft tip-on which opened up the London defence for Thewlis to send Matty Nicholson over late on.

Defensively, he did his job with a highlight reel hit thrown in there too.

He will no doubt get better in time, but this was a promising first outing for the 25-year-old.

Philbin’s big stint

One point of pre-match deliberation was whether or not Burgess may opt to leave his interchange middles out for longer spells.

That proved to be the case, with Zane Musgrove and particularly Joe Philbin spending a hefty amount of time on the field.

Having started on the edge, Nicholson’s introduction moved Philbin back to the middle and he produced an impactful stint that did not end until the very late stages of the game.

Musgrove too get plenty of time under his belt and considering Joe Bullock was deemed too ill to come on, leaving them an interchange down, Burgess will be happy with how his rotation worked.

There was no need to flog James Harrison and Paul Vaughan after their opening stints, with both only returning briefly late on, so that ever-crucial starting middle should be fresh for what is to come.

Now the fun begins…

Have we learned much about Warrington Wolves as an on-field unit over the past couple of weeks?

Probably not – anything other than two convincing wins over London would have been considered a disappointment and that is what they delivered, but the mentality and attitude shown in both matches lends weight to the idea that the dressing room culture may really be changing.

Now, though, the tests go up a notch with Catalans Dragons – the only team to blot their copybook thus far – arriving in a week for what should be a keenly contested affair.

With trips to Leeds and Salford either side of Leigh’s visit to The Halliwell Jones Stadium to follow in the coming weeks, we are about to find out much more about the kind of team this Wire side are.