WARRINGTON Wolves boss Tony Smith said his team are enjoying their defensive work at the moment.

Only one try was conceded in today’s win at Wakefield Trinity Wildcats, which took Wolves up to fifth in the table, while Smith was pleased overall with a display from a Wolves team featuring 16 British players.

“I thought it was a terrific effort both defensively and offensively,” said Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby.

“We threw some questions at Wakey and they asked some questions of us. We were able to answer most of those.

“We had 16 British players out there – just one overseas player in Roy Asotasi – and a fair amount of those were young British players as well. So I’m pleased with that, it’s a fairly good stat that one.”

He was pleased with the response after being tested early on by Wakefield, who had four successive sets attacking Warrington’s line as a result of two penalties being conceded by Wolves and then the home side forcing two goal-line drop outs.

“They had a lot more possession than us in the first half and we had to work really hard, particularly at the start of the game,” said Smith.

“That can often take its toll on a team but we weathered that storm and to hit back with a try after back-to-back-to-back sets on our own try line was good.

“They had a real dig at us, so to soak that up and come back with some of the quality tries was also good. And there were some spectacularly entertaining rugby league tries.

“And right until the end we were asking questions of them and so I’m pleased for our boys.

“They will have taken a lot out of that today. Our defence has been improving in big jumps over the weeks and it’ll need to jump again next week (against Leeds Rhinos on Friday) when they’ll be asked some different sort of questions.

“They’re been defending well at the moment and that can be seen. Their spirit when they do that is very good.”

It is a third win on the bounce for Wolves after their disappointing displays away to Castleford Tigers and Bradford Bulls.

“We’ve had some good days recently and we’ve worked hard for them,” said Smith.

“Hopefully we’ll keep that going for a while but it’s inevitable that somebody jumps out of the ground on a particular day and has a win.

“That doesn’t mean you become a bad team.

“It means, you’re reminded in sport that it ebbs and flows and you go through different stages throughout your season, somewhat revolving around your injuries. Some weeks you are a bit flatter than others.

“That’s the unexplainable thing about sport and the beauty of it as well. Because if we all knew what was going to happen each and every week it would be pretty boring.”