Warrington Wolves tasted just their third defeat of the Super League campaign last Thursday but it’s come ahead of what is a ‘crucial five weeks’ in the eyes of pundit Jon Wilkin, who has argued that this upcoming slate of games could well dictate if Wire are true contenders or not.
Having beaten St Helens on the road in round 14, Warrington welcomed Leeds Rhinos full of confidence but they were dispatched with relative ease as Brad Arthur’s side won 34-6 to complete a season double over Sam Burgess’ side and prevent them from going top of Super League.
Wire still have a game in hand but their points difference is substantially worse than the Rhinos and that could yet worsen over the coming five weeks, with Warrington set for a gauntlet of tough fixtures.
Their next five see them host Catalans, face Leigh at Magic Weekend, travel to Wigan, host Hull KR, and then face the Leopards again but on the road, with Sky Sports’ pundits Jon Wilkin and Sam Tomkins explaining that how Wire deal with those fixtures will ultimately define their year.
Speaking just after the loss to Leeds, Wilkin said: “I think it’s a difficult part of the season but if you want to be a champion team, if you want to finish in the top three, which is crucial as we all know, if you want to get to the Grand Final, if you want to go on and win it, the race for the top three is cooking now.
“For Warrington in particular, the next five weeks are crucial. They’ve come out okay (so far), 50-50, beat St Helens, lost here, but the next five now become really interesting.”
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Warrington Wolves facing ‘opportunity’ to define their year in gauntlet of games
So poor were Warrington and so good were Leeds on Thursday night that the Wolves’ head coach Sam Burgess admitted that he was happy the score remained 34, and didn’t blow out further, with Jon Wilkin pointing to that as a sign of just how aware Burgess is of points difference playing a part in this year’s Super League race.
Wilkin said: “Sam was pleased the score didn’t get away from him. He knows Leeds have got the capability to blow out to 50.
“He’s almost pleased it stayed at that level. That’s his awareness of the points difference.”
Sam Tomkins picked up on something different, noting: “He said, look, we’ll learn a lot from tonight, and I think this next run of fixtures is still an opportunity for Warrington to cement themselves because they won’t play as poor as that, I don’t think, again.
“I think that could have been the shot they needed. Next week they play Catalans. They can probably right a few wrongs there. Then they go into a real tough run of games where they’re going to be 50-50, potentially underdogs. The opportunity’s still there for this to define Warrington season in a positive way.”
A win over Catalans at home would set them up nicely for Magic Weekend against Leigh, however, a second straight home defeat could start the process of Warrington’s season being derailed, particularly given how tough the following four fixtures are.
