DESPITE making it three Super League wins in as many games under his stewardship, Daryl Powell was far from pleased with his Warrington Wolves side’s performance in doing so.

In fact, he labelled The Wire’s display in beating Toulouse Olympique “scratchy” and “incredibly flat.”

Wolves ran out 32-18 winners at the Stade Ernest Wallon but were made to work hard for it by an impressive TO side, who had been beaten heavily in their first two top flight fixtures against Huddersfield Giants and Salford Red Devils.

However, in terms of their development, Powell believes his side took “a couple of steps back” after improving against Castleford Tigers in Round Two.

Warrington Guardian:

George Williams is congratulated after scoring. Picture by SWPix.com

He did pay tribute to Sylvain Houles’ side, who scored three second-half tries to ensure they matched their visitors’ tally of points scored after the break.

“I thought we were scratchy, to be honest,” he said.

“We looked like we lacked energy, which is disappointing. We’ll review it and talk through the reasons for that.

“I’d like to say well done to Toulouse – they came after us, showed real intent and we had to really scramble to keep them out a couple of times.

“For us, we need to find another level. We had a couple of players missing but so did they.

“Clearly, we need to find a few more gears over the next couple of weeks as we’ve got some big challenges coming up.

“That was way off the standard we want to be at.”

After Toby King had opened the scoring early on, Josh Charnley touched down for his 200th Super League try after Chris Hankinson had got TO on the board with a penalty goal.

Warrington Guardian:

Josh Charnley scores his 200th Super League try. Picture by Joseph Richardson

King doubled his tally before the interval and George Williams raced away to score after it, before Olly Ashall-Bott marked his Toulouse debut with a sparkling individual try.

Charnley’s second and a further try for Daryl Clark put The Wire 32-8 ahead and with a platform to finish the game strongly, but Romain Navarette and Maxime Stefani scored late to ensure it was the hosts who had the final say.

Warrington Guardian:

Toulouse celebrate Romain Navarette's try. Picture by SWPix.com

“For us, our starts to games needs to be better particularly in terms of making metres,” Powell said.

“In the three games we’ve played, we’ve been penned in our own half right at the start.

“From that perspective, there’s an area we need to improve.

“They beat us at the ruck and that put us under pressure.

“Ultimately, we’ve won the game and we’re three from three but I was hoping we would take a step forward this week.

“We’ve taken a couple back and we need to find out why.”

Warrington Guardian:

The Wire players salute their travelling fans. Picture by SWPix.com

The team’s perfect start is set to come under severe examination in the coming weeks with games against both of last year’s Grand Finalists.

First up, League Leaders’ Shield winners Catalans Dragons visit The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday before Powell takes his side to the Totally Wicked Stadium to take on defending champions St Helens.

And the head coach admits that before then, his side have “a bit of work to do.”

“You look at Catalans – they’re down a few middle men and that will have an impact on them, but they’re winning games,” he said.

“Mike McMeeken has stepped in and he’s a big player in the middle, so they’re filling those slots well.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to shake this game off, learn some lessons from it and get stuck into the next two weeks.

“It’s a short-ish turnaround with two training sessions, and only one of those you could do anything tactically in, so we’ve got a bit of work to do.”