Castleford 21 Warrington 12, Steve Price reaction

Castleford Tigers were 21-12 victors at Headingley, with all four of their tries coming down The Wire’s right edge.

Josh Charnley cannot stop Niall Evalds from scoring. Picture by SWPix.com

The Tigers’ short-range kicking game caused them endless problems, leading to Oliver Holmes’ early try and almost causing two more which were chalked off by the video referee.

With ball in hand, Warrington struggled to build continuous periods of pressure as their play was punctuated by errors, indiscipline and the lack of creativity that dogged them for much of last season.

Price said he was “hurt” by his side’s showing and highlighted the areas in which he felt the game got away from them.

However, he insists he is not concerned about their poor start turning into an extended run.

Chris Hill shows his disappointment. Picture by PA Wire

“It wasn’t the start we were looking for. It hasn’t been a reflection of how we’ve carried ourselves through the pre-season,” he said.

“We’ll get some good, valuable lessons out of today’s game and there’s an opportunity to grow next week.

“Defensively, we weren’t hitting the markers we set ourselves. We were way off there.

“In terms of tackle control, they were far superior than us today. That snowballed into a lot of areas of our game.

“We showed some good parts but we have to be consistent in all actions and we weren’t.

“It’s not a concern, based on what I’ve seen over the past nine weeks but defensively, leaking in 21 points is not acceptable.”

“We have to be patient. There’s been a big change within our team through the pre-season with things we’ve been working on.

“It wasn’t on display today. That hurts, from a coaching point of view and also the players are hurting also and they have every right to.”

Connor Wrench brings down Oliver Holmes. Picture by PA Wire

With Greg Inglis not yet ready for action, Price opted to start academy graduate Connor Wrench at in the centres but he was part of an edge that was tortured defensively, with winger Josh Charnley in particular having a game to forget.

It was his error that led to Holmes opening the scoring in the fourth minute and along with Jake Trueman, Michael Shenton and Jordan Turner, he had a field day while Niall Evalds’ link play from full-back created countless overlaps.

Toby King had hit straight back for Warrington after Holmes’ try, but the missed conversion meant The Wire remained behind and it stayed that way despite well-taken second-half efforts from Daryl Clark and Blake Austin.

> Check out Warrington Wolves' first try of the new season in pictures here

Blake Austin touches down. Picture by SWPix.com

“Everyone needed to do their job collectively and we didn’t do that,” Price said.

“The first try was a basic fundamental – you just dive on that loose ball and we didn’t.

“We did some really good things in the second half and were starting to turn the screws on them, but we would let them off with a silly penalty or a hand in the ruck.

“That gave them field position with the strong wind behind them. It was quite hard to peg them back.

“The big thing for us is to do things consistently for longer periods. There were parts of that in today’s game but not enough.”

Clark came off the bench to add his typical punch from dummy-half, with Danny Walker given a start in the hooking role.

Price was happy with what he brought to the table off the interchanges and also had praise for debutant Robbie Mulhern, who also came off the bench.

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Daryl Clark sprints away to score. Picture by SWPix.com

“Daz missed a bit of pre-season and Danny has been fantastic throughout,” he said.

“We felt it was best today to bring Daz off the bench with his dynamic ball running.

“I thought he was really solid and I thought Robbie Mulhern gave us some good impact off the bench also.”