Warrington Wolves 10 St Helens 12, Daryl Powell reaction

The Wire were edged out 12-10 by the Super League leaders and defending champions in a pulsating encounter at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

Trailing by eight points at half time, they kept their visitors off the scoresheet in the second half and crossed themselves through George Williams, but they could not find the decisive winning score.

The celebrations that followed George Williams' try. Picture by PA Wire

The closest they came was an electric break down the right touchline by Connor Wrench in the game’s final minute, but the youngster was hauled down by a superb tackle by Saints winger Tommy Makinson.

While his side may have fallen to a third straight defeat, Powell saw plenty to be encouraged by.

“It’s pretty obvious that there were a lot of qualities in there that you’d want in a rugby league team,” he said.

“We had an opportunity right at the end with Connor, who’s a pretty special boy I’d say, to win the game, but St Helens are a quality team.

“The confidence we’ll get from going toe-to-toe with them is significant I think.

“It’s just about building that confidence now as a group and in each other that we’ve got everything we need going into the second half of the season.

Picture by Mike Boden

“We’re halfway through the year and in this game, we’ve shown what we can do when we’re all aligned and defensively, we’ve shown we can do what we know we can.

“If that was a Grand Final, you’d probably go home saying it was a great Grand Final.

“If we can play at that intensity and replicate it consistently which St Helens do, we’re alright.

“We’d probably have beaten most other teams tonight, but Saints have got special qualities that we’re after.

“Those are the type of qualities that will allow us to knock them over when it really matters.”

On Wrench’s near miss, he said: “The one thing you know with Saints is that they’re going to turn up somewhere. The tries we did score, we were getting challenged to score.

“That’s just what they’re like – they’re a champion team and that tackle is a pretty special tackle.

“It’s a tough play for Connor to make and he couldn’t quite make it. It’s disappointing but we’ll get so much from this.”

A conversion from Makinson was the only difference between the sides – he added the extras to his own try in the corner as well as Alex Walmsley’s effort from a wheeled scrum as Saints took control in the first half.

Gareth Widdop’s opening effort crucially went unconverted but when his break from a kick return set up Williams to score on the hour mark, it set up a grandstand finish.

Gareth Widdop touches down for The Wire's opening try. Picture by Mike Boden

While pleased with his side’s defensive application, Powell said they should have made more of the chances they had to cause Saints problems with ball in hand.

“To keep them scoreless in the second half is a fair effort,” he said.

“They’re an outstanding rugby league team and we worked so hard to keep them out.

“They put you in really difficult positions to get out of on a consistent basis. We had to work so hard to get out from deep areas and I thought we did it really well.

“The one thing we need to get better at is when we did get opportunities to attack their tryline, we didn’t look clinical enough and made too many errors.

“That’ll be an area we’ll look at and put a fair bit of time into.

“In terms of courage and commitment to what we’re trying to achieve, that was a massive, massive step forward.

“We need to replicate the effort and have a little bit more composure in attacking areas, then things will potentially look a fair bit different.”

Wire's determination in defence pleased Daryl Powell. Picture by Mike Boden

Widdop was returning to the side after a three-game injury absence and it surprised many when he was named at full-back – a position he has played in widely in the NRL and for England but never for Warrington since joining in 2020.

However, Powell believes Widdop is a more natural fit for full-back than the half-back role he has occupied in the main after a superb performance featuring a try and an assist.

“We’ve been speaking about it for a while – the control of our game from an attacking point of view,” he said.

“Stef (Ratchford) is probably a better organiser and then Gaz is probably more of a natural full-back if I’m honest.

“That fitted together quite well and that was a pretty special play from Gaz to set up the try on that kick return.

“I thought he was very brave in some very difficult areas, which Josh Thewlis has been when he’s played full-back. There’s two great players we’ve got playing full-back at the club.”

Gareth Widdop put in a stand-out display at full-back on his return to the Warrington Wolves side. Picture by Mike Boden

Powell also reserved praise for two more players for their individual performances

“I thought Pete Mata’utia was superb tonight – that’s a special performance from him,” he said.

“I saw him looking over at his brother (Saints back rower Sione) before kick-off a couple of times – you get a sense when Pete is going to be on and I thought he was super-on.

“Oliver Holmes is coming on. The one thing about him is that he’s a tough human being.

“I thought he played really well with the ball and looked sharp. He is pretty quick when he gets space.

“He’s a leader in the team, a great defender and with the ball he was pretty dangerous.”