Sam Burgess looking for response to Warrington's Wembley loss

Now, however, they must move on – and head coach Sam Burgess says their response to being on the wrong side of the Challenge Cup Final scoreline will define them as a group.

The Wire welcome Salford Red Devils to The Halliwell Jones Stadium tomorrow with their Wembley loss to Wigan Warriors still agonisingly fresh in their minds.

With the Challenge Cup campaign now consigned to the record books, their focus can now be solely on Super League and with the campaign at its halfway stage, Burgess’ boys find themselves in a handy position.

The competition resumes with Warrington sitting fourth, with Salford two points behind in sixth as part of a tightly bunched leading pack, with those in the play-off spots separated by just four points.

And with that in mind, Burgess says their opponents will arrive with no consideration for his side’s Wembley heartache, thereby emphasising the importance of his players being able to bounce back quickly.

A dejected George Williams in the aftermath of the Challenge Cup Final defeat to Wigan Warriors at Wembley Stadium (Image: SWPix.com)

“The guys are disappointed – that’s the reality of it – but we’ve got to move on,” he said.

“We’re playing Salford on Friday and they won’t care too much about us.

“We went through it on Tuesday in a little more detail, took the lessons out of it and now we’ve just got to move on.

“It was a disappointing day – it’s not always going to be perfect but how you bounce back from days like that defines you.

“We’ve all got a responsibility with that – myself, the staff, the players even down to the young boys that didn’t play.

“Our senior guys have got to grab the group and take us forward.

“Every time we’ve had a mishap and we haven’t performed to our standards, we learn pretty quickly.

“I expect us to come back better and by the time we get to one of those bigger games again, we’ll be more equipped.

“We can narrow our focus onto the league. In essence, it’s a blessing and we’re in a fairly decent position in that we’re not playing catch-up, so we can work on our own game.

“We’ve got 14 games left and it’s 14 opportunities to improve. We’ve had a short week with limited prep, but we’ve got what we needed out of it.”

A largely similar side to the one that played at Wembley is expected, with the only changes to the 21-man squad being the withdrawals of forwards Lachlan Fitzgibbon and Jordy Crowther with back and ankle injuries respectively.

They face a Red Devils side who are one of only three sides to beat them this year – Wigan and Catalans Dragons being the others – after Paul Rowley’s side won the Round Nine clash between the two at the Salford Community Stadium 17-12 in April.

As such, Burgess believes this is “the perfect fixture” for his side in this particular week.

Wire lost 17-12 to Salford back in Round Nine (Image: SWPix.com)

“It’s more about what we’re going to bring,” he said when asked about tomorrow’s opponents.

“They beat us last time we played them in what was one of our only other poor performances this season.

“It’s a great week for us to get back to what we know best and try not to be dragged off our style of play.

“It’s probably the perfect fixture, so I’m looking forward to seeing how the guys respond.”