ONCE again, Warrington Wolves are likely to find themselves grappling with complacency this week.
That may seem a strange thing to say ahead of the visit of Catalans Dragons – last year’s League Leaders’ Shield winners – to The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday, but hear me out.
When both 21-man squads were released earlier today, a more contrasting set of fortunes you could not wish to see.
> Click here to see the players both sides will choose from
One final team run aside, the Wire team looks set to be as strong as is available with the likes of Gareth Widdop, Ben Currie and Oliver Holmes looking set to return.
Gareth Widdop could be back alongside George Williams in the halves for Warrington Wolves against Catalans Dragons tomorrow, Friday. Widdop missed the win at Toulouse Olympique through illness but is in The Wire’s 21-man squad to face the Dragons.
Indeed, they are arguably only Billy Magoulias and Connor Wrench shy of this being their strongest available 21.
Over on the other side of the Channel, Steve McNamara will no doubt wish he had such problems given the amount of salary cap that will not be aboard the flight to England for the game.
The reigning Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel, their entire first-choice starting front row, a strike centre and one of the competition’s hottest young talents – just a handful of the players unavailable to the Dragons for the game.
Reigning Man of Steel Sam Tomkins is one of the players missing for Catalans. Picture by SWPix.com
Add to this a wretched record that has seen Catalans come out of this fixture empty-handed on the past 12 occasions, you can see why the odds may well be stacked in Warrington’s favour.
However, much like last week’s trip to Toulouse, that cannot be allowed to translate into a mindset that this game can be won in second gear.
The Dragons will adapt as they did in beating Leeds last week and in spite of all of their absences, this will still be the toughest test of Daryl Powell’s team to date.
Having declared himself dissatisfied with his side’s Round Three performance, Powell will no doubt have used his limited contact time with his players this week to drive home that very message.
The demand from the coaching box and from the terraces will be for the team to show their best display of the campaign to date.
Anything less is unlikely to be good enough.
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