MATTY Russell provided the spark in Warrington Wolves’ victory at Huddersfield Giants, according to his boss Tony Smith.

The Scotland international marked his first start for Wolves with a second half try and provided a threat from full back throughout the Super League Round 7 clash.

And Smith was delighted with the 20-year-old’s performance.

“If you’re looking for our best today it was Matty Russell,” he said. “Even when we weren’t quite firing on all cylinders he was still sparking us along.

“We’ll certainly improve on that performance. We were still a bit disjointed in the first half, but with a new half back combination this week I didn’t expect it to be fantastic.

“I thought right through the game Matty Russell was a real spark for us, he really was, the way he starts the sets for us and the way he brought the ball back gave us that spark we needed, but certainly second half I thought everybody picked up.”

Smith also praised the performance of prop Chris Hill and believes Rhys Evans put in a solid performance in the centres, where he replaced the injured Ryan Atkins in today’s line up.

“Chris had a good first half,” he added. “He played 40 minutes and not many props do that nowadays, but he’s capable of that and has a good engine.

“Ryan was injured and may miss a week or two with a ligament problem in his elbow, he could have played and we could have needled it, but we don’t want to be doing that sort of stuff.

“Rhys Evans was very solid, he did a good job in that left centre spot and didn’t look out of place.”