Sam Burgess has labelled Warrington Wolves’ game-winner George Williams as both ‘unbelievable’ and ‘magic’ after the England captain’s Man of the Match performance against St Helens.
Williams registered two assists and kicked the game-winning drop goal as Warrington Wolves defeated St Helens 23-22 in golden point in one of the most dramatic Super League play-off games in recent memory.
Warrington took the lead after just 90 seconds but St Helens started to take control, running out to a 16-4 lead before the Wolves pulled one back just before the break after more Williams magic.
From then, the home side were the dominant team and they moved to a 22-16 lead and looked to have booked their semi-final slot before Jon Bennison’s last-minute try, leading to a tense period of golden point.
Thankfully for Sam Burgess, up stepped George Williams at the second attempt to knock over the drop goal and secure the win with the Warrington Wolves head coach speaking post-game to Sky Sports to give his thoughts on the game.
Burgess explained: “It’s a tough win against a champion side. You can see why they’ve won it so many times in the past five years but I’m happy for the players. A lot of effort has gone into the year and we just weren’t ready to finish yet.”
England captain stands out in Warrington Wolves win
Credit: Paul Currie/SWpix.com
It wasn’t plain sailing for Warrington and Burgess conceded that as he stated Wire were not at their best and could well have had their season ended, if not for the magic of George Williams.
Burgess accepted: “We weren’t at our best tonight and we won a different way to how we have all year. We were losing the physicality (battle) early and I thought that Joe Philbin came on and he changed the physicality for us.
“I thought George Williams tonight was unbelievable. His composure in big moments, not only the last moment, but throughout the whole game was brilliant. It was probably the best game of the year.”
Part of Williams’ brilliance was his darting shift to the left to set up Matty Ashton to score just before half-time, a try that meant Warrington were only trailing by one try as opposed to two at the break.
Speaking on that timing, Burgess heaped the praise on Williams, explaining: “It’s super important. Twelve points is a lot in a finals game but going in six down, we were pretty calm at half-time. We just needed to tidy a few things up.
“He had made that try from nowhere. He took the short side but George is magic. We’re so grateful to have him at our side. He’s composed when he needs to be.”
Warrington Wolves will now travel to face Hull KR next Friday night at Craven Park as they bid to return to the Grand Final for the first time since 2018.
