Warrington Wolves boss Sam Burgess has admitted that parts of his sides defeat to Leeds Rhinos were ‘tough to watch’ with Wire missing out on a chance to go top of Super League.
Leeds ran in six tries, three in each half, as they won 34-6 against a Warrington side who offered very little in attack at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Maika Sivo scored three as he continued his rampaging run of try-scoring with five of Leeds’ six tries coming against Warrington’s right edge.
Speaking post-match on Sky Sports, Burgess admitted: “Parts of it were tough to watch.”
Assessing where the game went wrong, he said: “I thought we lost three moments in the first half. They had a great bit of a trick play, score points early and then Ash Hamley beat Josh Smith to score the other try and then Harry Newman out-competed Josh.
“Those are the 16 points in the first half. Other than that, I thought parts of it were okay but we missed some big moments which we’ve been pretty good at.
“That’s the way it goes against a good team. In the second half, they made us pay. They were just a far greater side. They played very expansive and a lot of the ball stuck for them and we struggled to control it.”
Burgess even conceded: “I’m actually grateful the scoreline stayed as it is because we know they can pause points and I thought they were very, very good tonight. We just missed the mark a little bit.”
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Back to the drawing board for Warrington Wolves, claims Sam Burgess
Despite such a heavy defeat and forfeiting the opportunity to go top of Super League, the Warrington boss explained why he wasn’t frustrated about the defeat, pointing to the fact that the Wolves will learn plenty.
Burgess said: “I’m okay. We’ll learn a lot tonight, I think, especially our young halves will learn a lot.
“We had a bit of a field position early but we looked a little bit flustered early and then the scoreboard didn’t help us. We’ll learn something out of it for sure. I’m not frustrated because there was a lot of effort, believe it or not.”
He added: “As I said, a few moments in the first half and a little bit of scoreboard pressure. Leeds are a team that can really make you pay and they did in the second half, we’ll go back to the dry board and have to get going again for next week.”
As for Maika Sivo, Burgess was asked how he would have handled the Fijian, to which he bluntly said: “Well, I’m not a winger so I don’t know. He’s hard to handle, he’s a big guy.”
