THIS was described in a couple of quarters as Warrington Wolves’ worst performance of the season all things considered.
It’s fair to say that assessment falls into the overly harsh category, but it is certainly a display Sam Burgess and his players will not be over the moon with.
Still, the important thing is that they got what they came for – two points to keep themselves on track for their end goal.
And it should not be forgotten that they did it without the services of several key members of their side, albeit that was mostly through choice as Burgess opted to rotate his squad.
Doing so while paying an improving London side the respect they were due was always going to be a balancing act and while that meant plenty of areas of their game were compromised, they can come away knowing they got the balance right on the day.
They did enough to win the game and got some rest into certain players who were due a break without picking up any fresh injury concerns – on that front, it was mission accomplished.
However, Burgess is all about the bigger picture and moving forward into the business end of the season, he will have seen some things that concerned him.
Many of them followed a similar pattern to the areas in which they fell down at Hull KR, namely the propensity to release the pressure on their opponents too easily with errors and/or penalties and a vulnerability from high kicks.
Broncos half Jack Campagnolo showed signs that the latter had been picked up in the hosts’ pre-game review as even kicks from deep were given height rather than length to make them genuine contests and while they did not make any of those situations count, they certainly panicked the Wire rearguard with them.
All four of London’s tries could be put in the soft and avoidable category, whether through one-on-one misses or a slow reaction to second-phase play but the hosts deserve credit for showing adventure and refusing to submit to a fate that seemed inevitable when they went 10-0 down arguably against the run of play.
That is not to say the performances was entirely without positives for Warrington – far from it. Despite the noticeable, George Williams-shaped hole in their side, they still managed to score 36 points while Matty Ashton showed just why he is a jewel in the Wire crown.
The aforementioned duo are certainly players Burgess can ill-afford to do without, and he will no doubt be hoping they among others will get through what remains of the year unscathed.
Overall, this is probably a game to be left down in the capital and moved on from with the hope it has served its purpose for the bigger tests to come.
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