HIS first Super League game in charge of The Wire may have ended in defeat, but head coach Steve Price says the 16-12 loss to Leeds Rhinos is “a good starting point” for his side.

Two Ryan Hall tries and one from Jamie Jones-Buchanan proved Warrington’s undoing, despite Tom Lineham setting up a grandstand finish after Bryson Goodwin had earlier marked his Super League debut with a try.

Report: Wire 12 Leeds 16

As it happened

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It was the first time the Rhinos had won at The Halliwell Jones Stadium since 2011 and it denied The Wire the chance to set a new club Super League era record of 11 consecutive wins.

Nevertheless, Price was keen to take the positives but admitted their attack was “clunky.”

“At 16-6, we showed a fair amount of resolve with our goalline defence. We just kept turning them away,” he said.

“We gave ourselves enough chances, but as I’ve said all along that it’s going to take a little bit of time and we need to be patient, especially with the new combinations we have.

“We were a little bit clunky in our offence, but there were plenty of positives to come out of it going forward.

“We’ve got a lot of improvement left in us. It’s only round one.

“At times, I thought we were missing the jump when we needed to go out wide.

“Our back rowers were just off their point of mark, so we’ll improve that.”

Wolves had plenty of chances and were held up over the line several times, but Ryan Atkins spurned the best of them in the second half.

He attempted an extravagant dive over the line to avoid being bundled into touch by the Leeds defence, but the pressure on him was significant enough for him to spill the ball in mid-air.

“I’m sure if Ryan had his time again, he’d get down low and go underneath the defenders,” Price said.

“I thought their back five was the difference, credit to them. I thought they were really strong.

“We had enough chances. I think we got over the line five times but were held up over the line. You have to give credit to Leeds for that defence.

“I thought Bryson Goodwin had a strong performance in offence and defence. He is only going to get better.”