Warrington 34 Castleford 10, Daryl Powell reaction

Much of the build-up to the clash with Castleford Tigers centred on the new Warrington Wolves head coach’s first meeting with the side he led for eight years, which just so happened to be his first home game in charge.

Once the action started, though, his players did the business as The Wire ran out 34-10 victors at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Daryl Powell was centre of attention pre-match. Picture by Mike Boden

In what had the potential to be a tricky fixture, Powell can reflect on a job well done for his side.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to lose that game,” he said in his post-match press conference.

“I’ve obviously got a lot of regard for Castleford, but you don’t want to lose against your old team, especially with it being my first game at home here.

“I thought it was a pivotal game for us.

“We found our way out of a difficult situation last week without playing that well, so I thought it was important we played well tonight and I thought we did.

“At this time of year, the conditions are a little bit awkward. They don’t really allow you to play as fast as you want to play, but we did some really good things.

The celebrations that followed Robbie Mulhern's try. Picture by Mike Boden

“As a coach, you’re all about performance. In some ways its all about the win but when you really look at it in the cold light of day, it’s about how your players are playing.

“Today’s a much better performance in lots of ways.

“For me, it was a tough game – I’ve been asked millions of questions this week about my relationship with Castleford, so it was really pleasing.

“The boys have done an awesome job in lots of ways.”

As well as questions about his former club, Powell also had to deal with questions about his forwards in the build-up.

A pack that was second-best against Leeds Rhinos was shorn of its cornerstone, with Mike Cooper absent from the side due to illness.

However, those left stood up led by Robbie Mulhern, who capped a good display with his first try for the club.

Robbie Mulhern was a stand-out performer. Picture by Mike Boden

With their ruck defence tightened up, they were able to largely nullify the significant threat of Tigers hooker Paul McShane among others.

“I thought we played much better this week,” Powell said.

“We started a little bit slow defensively and lost the initial battle for field position, but we grew into the game.

“We played some really smart rugby league and our middle unit were excellent defensively which is something we asked them to do during the week.

“Rob Mulhern led that – he was fantastic with his line speed – but all the pack were awesome.

“Jason Clark, Matty Davis was the same, Danny Walker to do 80 minutes – the pack were great and our halves were really inventive once we opened our game up a little bit.

Danny Walker played 80 minutes at hooker in Daryl Clark's absence. Picture by Mike Boden

“We’ve built a score for ourselves and we didn’t go after it too much – we did in the first half but we tidied ourselves up in the second and were really controlled.

“Our defence was really strong, I thought we shut down their key threats.

“You always look at the key players from the opposition went and how you’ve dealt with them and we were really good in that regard.”

With ball in hand, Wolves started to express themselves as the game went on with George Williams to the fore.

Having scored a try in the first half, he then set up Mulhern with a superb short pass before a pinpoint kick created Josh Charnley’s second try.

George Williams after scoring in the first half. Picture by Mike Boden

“When he threw a ball over the top that got intercepted, I was having a bit of a pop at him in the coaches box, but then he comes up with that kick for a try. He’s just an outstanding player,” Powell said of his number six.

“The amount of quality players at this club, combining them all together and getting a consistency of performance is going to make us a really difficult team to beat.”