Warrington Wolves talking points after win at St Helens

All things considered, there is a fair case to say it may be as several young stars stepped up in the absence of their more celebrated colleagues to bring St Helens’ perfect home record to an end.

Speaking of perfect records, Sam Burgess has still never known anything but victory against Saints as a head coach following a night that showed that both the present and future of The Wire is very bright indeed.

Our Wire reporter Matt Turner analyses some key post-match talking points here…

“Top of the league, with half a team”

That was the song ringing out of the away end at full time after Warrington Wolves ticked off another victory.

Amid the hearty strains of “nine in a row” and the serenading of teenage star Ewan Irwin, it was a ditty that was as pertinent as it was enjoyable.

Warrington are not the only team with injury troubles, but the players they have missing make this win – and those that have gone before it – even more impressive.

For context, three members of the spine the majority of Wire fans would have seen in February as first-choice – Cai Taylor-Wray, George Williams and Marc Sneyd – were all missing as were key cogs in the machine such as Luke Yates, Sam Stone, Toby King and Joe Philbin.

Nevertheless, The Wire just keep chugging on – they don’t look at their sharpest with the ball at the moment, but they are backing their defence and it is paying dividends.

On average, they are conceding just over 14 points per game – the best current defensive record in the competition – which represents a 10-point drop on this stage last year. The absolute definition of “night and day.”

It won’t always go as well as this, but the potential of what this side could achieve when they are eventually bolstered by some senior returnees is tantalising.

Steadfast faith in youth pays off

Warrington are on a path from which they will clearly not deviate – at every possible opportunity, they will put their trust in homegrown products.

That approach will require support and patience through the inevitable troughs, but peaks such as this one should be shouted about from the rooftops.

Beating your neighbours with a spine that contained an established academy graduate at full-back, two recent youth-system products in the halves and as proud a Warringtonian you could ever wish to meet at hooker? Not so long ago, something like that seemed pretty fanciful.

And even though his night ended in unfortunate fashion early on, there was no question of Zack Gardner not getting a go at replacing the injured Toby King in the centres when past regimes would have opted for square pegs in round holes.

In all, six of Warrington’s starting 13 came through their academy with three of them – Gardner, Ewan Irwin and Leon Hayes – having played under 18s rugby league at some point in the past two years.

Whatever happens during the rest of his tenure, Sam Burgess’ willingness to give youngsters their chance will be one of the biggest pillars of his Warrington legacy and now it is delivering results to put them in contention for the big prizes, it will naturally get more attention from the wider world.

Homegrown halves have earned the right

A Ewan Irwin-Leon Hayes half-back partnership was the dream scenario for many within the club, and there were plenty of advocates for running with the duo as the first-choice six and seven for next year when Williams and, as appears increasingly likely, Sneyd depart.

Brodie Croft’s signing will likely mean one of them will have to be content to be the back-up option, but it appears both will now have the opportunity to go into 2027 with the bulk of a Super League campaign under their belts.

Sam Burgess has pretty much confirmed that Irwin and Hayes will now remain in the side should they stay fit regardless of Sneyd’s availability. If Williams’ planned return to fitness towards the end of the campaign materialises, there will then be a decision to be made.

But the young duo have earned the right to get a run, and Hayes appears to bring the best out of Irwin – it is no coincidence that all three of the latter’s senior tries have come with the former alongside him.

Hayes will have better nights than this one in terms of his own individual contribution, with the wind making kicks difficult to judge, but it must be remembered that he is still feeling his way back into top-flight rugby league after a torrid time with injuries.

And if his presence allows Irwin to churn out performances like this, the pros outweigh the cons.

Defensively, too, the pair of them were solid – having handled Junior Nsemba with aplomb several weeks back against Wigan, Irwin dealt with Alex Walmsley running wider to target him well while Hayes belied his size once again. Between them, the pair completed 47 out of 48 tackles.

Back three’s unselfish graft

Although Albert Hopoate finished the one chance he got well, this was not a night for Warrington’s back three to show what they could do in an attacking sense.

And it remains a frustration that neither him, Josh Thewlis or particularly Matty Ashton have had precious little open space in which to work of late, but they are excelling in the other side of their game.

Doing the donkey work in yardage is as big a requirement as finishing off tries in their positions, and the three of them continually put their hands up for the tough carries with Saints flying off the line at them.

Full-back Thewlis and wingers Hopoate and Ashton carried the ball 71 times between them, making up more than a third of the team’s total carries.

It’s no secret that Warrington are a side that relies heavily upon their outside-backs to get them on the front foot given they possess one of the competition’s lighter packs, so having players like that who are not shy of doing the tough stuff is a Godsend for them.

A mouth-watering match-up

Warrington’s place at the top of the table is likely to only be temporary, with Leeds Rhinos heavily favoured to beat Toulouse Olympique on Friday evening to take their spot back.

Even so, it sets things up wonderfully for next Thursday when Brad Arthur brings his impressive Rhinos side to The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The meeting at Headingley back in Round Six was a well-contested affair that The Wire just finished on the wrong side of, but predictions of that game being the catalyst for them falling away from contention have so far proved unfounded.

Leeds will no doubt be favourites for the game but with Warrington clearly in confident mood and with a perfect home record to protect, all the ingredients for a cracker are in place.

Both clubs will no doubt do all they can to get the kind of crowd into the stadium that the occasion deserves, even if the Thursday-night billing may be prohibitive to that. Had the game been scheduled for Friday or Saturday, a sell-out would have been a distinct possibility.

But all we can say is get your tickets and roll up, for you won’t want to miss this…