SELECTING Kurt Gidley on the bench proved to be a wise move for Warrington Wolves in their narrow win at London Broncos.

In his comeback game, the experienced utility Australian was able to make an impact after the 'sting' of the physicality in the opening exchanges had toned down.

When he joined the action at hooker Wolves were trailing 14-0 but when he went off again 16 minutes from time The Wire were leading 34-20.

He was thrown back on for the final two minutes as The Wire desperately hung on to a 40-38 lead.

In the absence of regular dummy half Daryl Clark, rookie Morgan Smith had started in the pivotal number nine role for the second successive game, having previously been impressing in spells off the bench.

“Kurt hadn’t played for seven weeks, so that was his introduction to come back in and I thought he handled it pretty good," said Wolves' head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith, who elected to leave out Leeds Rhinos-bound hooker Brad Dwyer and admitted some Wire players on show on Saturday night were carrying injury.

“Some of the sting had gone out of the game, so that helped Kurt.

“Kurt’s a bit underdone. He’s a fit guy but he hasn’t done a lot of running.

"He had a break in a bone in his leg so we’ve given him maximum time to recover from that break, so we hadn’t run him much in order to get him back.

"We had to take care of him, so hopefully he’ll be better for the run for next week."

Although 19-year-old Morgan Smith was below his best at the Trailfinders Sports Club, Smith rates him highly and sees a bright future for former Leeds scholarship player.

“It wasn’t one of Morgan’s stronger nights," said Smith when asked about the teenager's performance.

"He’s been doing a good job for us but I thought we had much more control when Kurt was on there.

“Morgan’s a young developing kid that I have a lot of time for and I admire.

"He’s going to be a very good player, and he is already but he’s still learning his trade."

Smith said he does not expect England hooker Clark to be available for the home clash with Leigh on Saturday as he continues his recovery from a knee procedure, but does believe he will have a chance of returning to the fray for the trip to Featherstone Rovers on Sunday, September 17 in the penultimate round of the Middle 8s campaign.

He added: “We’ve got a couple of boys carrying a bit (of injury) into games and that probably showed a little bit.

"But there’s no further injuries that we’re aware of at this stage.

“We should have Mike Cooper and Joe Westerman back available for next week which could be handy as well at the moment to just freshen us up.

“It was nice having Kurt back. If we get another couple of bodies – Ben Currie’s not far away and even Harvey Livett’s not too far away – we could have some fresh bodies going into the last few rounds.”