LEE Briers revealed that it was said in the dressing room at half-time that it may take until the 79th minute for Warrington Wolves to win last night's match at Leeds Rhinos.

"And it did," said The Wire's assistant coach after George Williams' drop goal on his debut with 40 seconds left on the clock sealed a 27-26 success at Headingley.

“We always believed we could come back and win.

“I thought Leeds were great but it was one of those games that nobody could get hold of, so it was going to take until the last minute, which we spoke about.

“I thought the guys really dug in."

With 13 minutes remaining, Leeds levelling the score at 20-20 and Warrington facing the next 10 minutes with 12 men following a late tackle by skipper Jack Hughes, it looked a tall order.

"I thought they showed up for their captain, who got 10 minutes in the sin bin," said Briers.

"Jack’s a warrior and I thought the boys responded and had a dig for him.

"And I suppose it’s a belief in what we’re trying to do.

“We kept on playing and defended well.

“We conceded a try while down to 12 but the belief never waivered and we kept on going. We speak about this a lot, Pricey’s a great coach and he gets them working hard for one another and they’re starting to believe.

“We were six points down with 10 minutes to go and one man down but this team wants to come back. They’re believing.

"We weren’t great all over the park, but you don’t have to be when you’ve got fighting spirit like they showed.

“We pride ourselves on being resilient.

“It’s a work in progress.

“People only see what goes on in the 80 minutes on the field.

“We’ve had three weeks of Covid. I know everybody else has, but we’ve had nobody training.

“To get people on the field and to perform like that takes some doing.

“I’m going to tip my hat to every player in the whole of Super League.

“We are doing it tough, and the country’s doing it really tough with the pandemic, but rugby league players in general are very resilient and everybody speaks of that.

“We’re another team who wants to be as resilient as the next one.

"Obviously we turned the ball over a few too many times for our liking but you've got to put into consideration we've had no training together for three weeks and we've got a new spine with George coming in.

"We were dropping the ball by playing. Some of our play was awesome but the end pass was letting us down and that comes back to training and getting that rhythm together.

"We'll be better off for that game and we've got a seven-day turnaround now in which we can get some training into the boys and some defence against us. We've not been able to have defence against us because we've been running with a bare 13/14 and it's hard.

"But I thought the guts and character that was needed tonight was there for all to see. Some times you don't play your best but you turn up for one another and that's what we did right up until the 79th minute.

"I thought it was a really entertaining game and I think the win was deserved in the end."

It was a try by fresh-legged impact hooker Danny Walker four minutes from time that put Warrington in the winning position.

"Robbie Mulhern played the ball to get Danny Walker a quick one and Danny scooted over," said Briers.

"Danny had to wait 70 minutes on the bench so it was a fabulous effort from him to get us back into it."

Briers picked out a few players who caught his eye.

“Across the board we were very strong," he said.

“The two boys up front, Hill and Cooper. I thought Mulhern when he came on was outstanding.

“I thought Jack Hughes when he moved to 13 was outstanding. We got young Ellis Longstaff on and he doesn’t look out of place which is real good for the future of the club.

“Stef Ratchford at the back was sensational.”