Warrington Wolves 40 Hull Kingston Rovers 0

THE big fat zero next to opposition names in the first-team’s two pre-season friendlies tells us a lot.

Just like against Widnes earlier this month, the nilling of Rovers in Chris Bridge’s Testimonial game on Sunday is an indication of how hard the Warrington players are working for each other.

“Not conceding any points is rewarding and a hard thing to do,” said Wolves head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith.

“We’re working hard on a lot of aspects but we felt particularly last year we were a bit ‘leaky’ and we want to tighten up.

“So we’ve put some extra attention into some of our defensive patterns and techniques because we want to improve. We need to if we’re going to be a contender.”

Wolves, who had the third best defence in Super League last year, rarely looked under threat from a Rovers side who had won 28-22 at city rivals Hull FC a week earlier and was not lacking in talent. They had five players from last year’s NRL competition among their 11 new signings on show.

Wolves desperately defended double sets on their own line on two occasions.

And they got four bodies in the way when prop Mick Weyman was held up over the whitewash on the Robins’ best opportunity to score.

For Smith’s men, it was a performance that showed protecting your own danger zone does not have to stump attacking prowess.

And certainly not when adding a class act like Daryl Clark into an already tasty mix.

Clark, just 20 days into his pre-season work, gave glimpses of his explosive pace and side-stepping footwork out at dummy half, combined with a spell at loose forward that allowed him to show other sides to his game too.

The two long-range tries from Kevin Penny were a joy to see, both coming from intelligent reading of the game by Gareth O’Brien, whose half-back partnership with Richie Myler looked cohesive and sharp.

There was not a disappointing performance from anyone, with bruising prop Ashton Sims again showing he is going to be a crowd-pleaser with his aggressive style.

And to cap it all, England Academy internationals Sam Wilde and Jack Johnson both tasted first-team action for the first time late on.

Smith concluded: “We know we’ve got things to work on but the signs are good.”

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Rhys Evans, Joel Monaghan, Ryan Atkins, Kevin Penny; Gareth O’Brien, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Daryl Clark, Ashton Sims, Ben Currie, James Laithwaite, Ben Westwood. Subs: Chris Bridge, Micky Higham, Gary Wheeler, Ben Evans, Sam Wilde, Anthony England, George King, Joe Philbin, Jack Johnson.