CO-CAPTAINCY is suiting Jack Hughes well.

The England Knights back rower and skipper, who is sharing The Wire armband with Chris Hill for the first time, has started the Warrington Wolves season strongly and was one of several to be given a ‘shout out’ by head coach Steve Price in the team’s latest win against Wigan Warriors.

Wolves' top tackler in 2019 is currently spending more time on the field than prop Hill and that presents him with more responsibility.

“I’m just enjoying the role and taking my time with it, getting that relationship with Hilly stronger and stronger and building it week on week,” he said.

“It’s a long-term thing for me to build on and slowly get better and better.

“I said when I got the nod that I thought it was a role I could thrive in, something that could help me take my game to the next level.

“At the minute I’m thriving off it, I’m enjoying it and long may it continue.”

There was one call on the field he did not make against his hometown former Wigan side but was nevertheless pleased about.

The Wire needed to settle things down when the cherry and whites fought back from 18-0 to 18-12 in the second half at a time when general Blake Austin was off the field with a head injury.

A drop-goal from Dec Patton gave his side some breathing space.

“To be honest, for me it was pretty unexpected,” said Hughes.

“There wasn’t really much talk of that but it was really pleasing to see Dec managed some space and knocked one over.

“I think Dec just got the ball in the right place on the last tackle and he slotted it over.

“It’s something we’ve struggled with over the past few years , so to see Dec get a one-pointer and for it to make a difference by giving us a bit of a comfort blanket I was very happy about it.”

Focus switches to two away games now, Wakefield on Thursday and then Hull FC eight days later.

“It’s two tough weeks on the road. We’re going to have to be at our best both weeks,” said Hughes.

“You can’t go to either of them and not be 100 percent because you’ll get turned over.

“So we’ll be doing everything we can to be at our best and giving ourselves a chance of picking up four points over the next couple of weeks.”

He hopes that supporters will be able to make the trip on Thursday night to help lift the side.

“Wakefield always seem to start a season well, particularly at home,” he said.

“They’re a really tough side. It’s a Thursday night but hopefully the fans can travel well and give us a bit of something.”

There are areas in which Hughes says there needs to be improvement by the team.

“There was a point against Wigan where we had to reshuffle and make a couple of changes and we looked a bit unstructured at times but we soon got back to it as all good teams do – you pick up on things as they happen and you put it right.

“We’re a tough side and a good side and we managed it well.

“For us that was the most disappointing period of the game.

“The two quick tries they got against us we’ll probably put down to ‘concentration’.

“That’s the time and part of games where we need to raise our game and take it to the next level not have lapses of concentration and concede two soft tries.”

When ‘Bad Blood’ came to the surface late on and it led to Ben Westwood being sent off and Dec Patton sin-binned, along with Wigan’s Willie Isa, Hughes said he was not nervous about playing the remaining seven minutes with one man less.

“We knew we just had to get back to what was working for us earlier on in the game,” he said.

“We were rolling Wigan up the middle and moving the ball well.

“We went away from that off the back of the reshuffle and we just had to go back to what was working well for us.

“At that point there wasn’t long left on the clock and it was about slowing the game down.

“Austo was finding touch with the kicks trying to slow the game down and in the end it brought it home.”

He did touch down the final try three minutes from time, ploughing over from short range with a powerful surge, to make double sure of the victory.

“We didn’t necessarily need the try at the end but it was the icing on the cake,” he said.

“To get over for one at any time is always a good feeling.

“Being against my former club makes it a little bit more special I suppose but I don’t really think about those kind of things any more.

“Wigan games are always going to be a meet-fire-with-fire kind of game and that’s exactly what it was.

“We spoke about Wigan being fired up on the back of kind of being embarrassed the previous week.

“We were up for that, expecting it, and it didn’t disappoint.

“For the majority of the game things went to plan.

“We have the ‘fire’ and aggressive side of it and then we have the smart side where we move the ball about and make teams do a bit of work.

“I thought we balanced that pretty well for the majority of the game.”