STEVE Price wanted a response from his Warrington Wolves players – and they certainly delivered.

The Wire bounced back perfectly from their opening-day disappointment by dismantling Leigh Centurions, running in eight tries in the process.

Seven of those tries came through a rampant left edge, with England international Gareth Widdop orchestrating a much-improved display.

Warrington Guardian:

Tom Lineham dives over for his second try. Picture by Mike Boden

“It was a big improvement – a totally different performance from last week so that was pleasing,” Price said.

“Credit to the boys for their start and defensively, we were a lot more solid with our actions as a collective.

“Our effort areas were a big improvement. The left side was very potent and the right edge had a big improvement also.

“Their big blockers in (Adam) Sidlow and (Nate) Peteru like a bit of second-phase and Liam Hood plays off the back of that, but I thought we negated that quite well.

“Systematically, we were quite sound and our push supports across the board improved.

“When you’re completing at 78 per cent, you’re always going to run some tries in.

“That’s the standard as a group but we want to keep improving in small steps going forward.

“It was a good reaction – I was looking for a good response and we got that.”

Widdop was at the heart of almost all the good things Warrington did and capped a glowing display with two tries.

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Gareth Widdop put in a stunning performance against Leigh Centurions. Picture by Mike Boden

Toby King and Tom Lineham also grabbed two each, with Ben Currie and Jake Mamo completing the scoring.

When asked if this was Widdop’s best display since joining The Wire last year, Price said:”You could say that.

“He’s feeling really good about himself, he’s nailed his pre-season.

“I know what sort of player Gaz is. He’s a fantastic guy and he’s a fantastic rugby league player to go with it.

“What happened last year has happened – we can’t control that and that’s way behind us.

“What we can control is the present and that’s what Gareth is doing really well.

“It’s a credit to him for how he’s carrying himself and it was a fantastic display over on that left side today.”

Price also credited the display of Chris Hill, who left the field early to undergo a concussion assessment.

Having passed that, he returned to put in an impressive performance in the front row against his former club.

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Chris Hill in action against former club Leigh Centurions. Picture by Mike Boden

“I thought he carried the ball really strong,” Price said.

“He had some really late threat at the line, he was poking his nose through and we were playing off the back of that.

“He had a really good stint. It was unfortunate he got a bit of a head knock but he’s good in the changing rooms.

“Rob Butler I thought was solid for his first hit-out. He’s still only a young kid learning his craft and will only get better for us.

“As a collective, it was a really good buy-in, especially from a short turnaround. We’ll build into Swinton next week, we have a long turnaround which is going to benefit us.

“Momentum is critical, especially with the speed of the game nowadays.

“We talk about that a fair bit and I thought today, we sustained it when we had it and when we lost it, we got it back a lot quicker than we did last week.

“We put it behind us pretty quickly, we got a response and a reaction from the players and it shows they take a lot of pride in their performance.

“We want to do our town proud and the guys did that today.”

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Picture by Mike Boden