Warrington Wolves 24 Catalans Dragons 32, key talking points

The Wire twice threatened to reel in big Dragons leads, but the French outfit were able to hold them off and return to Perpignan with two competition points.

So for Sam Burgess and his side, is it back to the drawing board? Or is there no need to panic?

Our Wire reporter Matt Turner picks out five key talking points from the game here…

A reminder of work still to do

This game was being seen by many both internally and otherwise as a yardstick – an acid test, if you will, with regards to where Warrington Wolves sit in comparison with an established top-end Super League side.

The game itself showed that, while they have made strides in some areas, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Of course, that is to be expected as that kind of gap was never going to be bridged in six rounds, but it was a brutal reminder as to why nobody was getting carried away with the recent winning run. If anything, it puts their results gained against teams at the bottom end into sharper context.

This defeat should not be seen as a de-railer to their campaign and it is still far too early to form definitive judgements, but Wire are not where they want to be yet.

Catalans celebrate amid dejected Wire players at full time (Image: SWPix.com)

Poor starts prove fatal

It is hard to imagine Warrington’s start to the game being any worse than what it was.

Eight disastrous minutes saw them concede three tries and lose Paul Vaughan to a sin-binning, meaning they were 18-0 down and down to 12 men with just 13 minutes played.

Against any side, that is giving yourself a mountain to climb but against one as rock-solid as Catalans tend to be, Wire really did paint themselves to a wall.

If anything, though, their similarly poor start to the second half was even worse given they had dragged themselves back into contention before half time, but two more soft tries conceded in the 10 minutes after the restart sent them tumbling back down to the bottom of the hill.

The way in which they almost climbed said hill was admirable, but they only have themselves to blame for not doing as they gave themselves too much to do.

Tom Davies celebrates opening the scoring (Image: SWPix.com)

Fans’ concerns are realised

If you asked any Warrington fan where they felt their weaknesses lay during pre-season, they would point immediately towards the pack.

While it is far from the smallest in Super League, there were plenty sceptical about how it stacked up in terms of both size and depth to the monster packs of the competition, of which Catalans are one.

As in Perpignan, this showing did not do much to alleviate those concerns although mitigation can be found in that Wire lost two middles to head injuries in Joe Philbin and Zane Musgrove.

They will also look to the right edge being vulnerable defensively again – although they were not opened up for any of the tries, they were continually targeted by Jordan Abdull’s kicks, four of which led to tries.

Josh Thewlis in particular can expect more kicks to be put on his head in the coming weeks.

Abdull masterclass

For the second time in the space of six weeks, Wire were on the receiving end of a superb display from Catalans’ English half-back.

The way in which he kicks the ball is unique and causes no end of problems for opponents, with four of the Dragons’ six tries stemming from him putting boot to ball.

Regularly calling for short-side plays to his side, he tortured Wire’s right edge both with his kicking and his running power as he stepped up in the absence of key creative colleagues Theo Fages and Arthur Mourgue.

Wire’s handling of his kicks can be called into question – they let the ball bounce more than they should have, for instance – but it was perhaps fitting that Abdull scored the winning try by, you guessed it, following up his own kick.

It’s not all doom and gloom…

The fact this game was still alive as a contest going into the final minutes is perhaps a victory in itself for Wire.

Anyone questioning of their effort and commitment would be harsh given how close they came to actually reeling the Dragons in.

They got themselves back to within six before the break and were on top to the point that Catalans were thankful for the half-time hooter and when George Williams touched down, they had dragged themselves back to within four points with a quarter of the game still remaining.

There’s plenty about the performance you can question, but there is clearly plenty of fight in this Wire side – something that has been sorely lacking in recent years.

Individually, Williams had a positive return from injury, Leon Hayes continues to grow in stature and influence while Lachlan Fitzgibbon was again a menace on the left-edge.

George Williams' try brought Wire back to within four points (Image: Mike Boden)