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The possible reason why Warrington Wolves will play only twice in pre-season

Warrington Wolves are hoping for the 2023 season to come around just so they can forget about their 2022 campaign in which they finished 11th.

It was the Wire’s worst ever finish in Super League and did see them at times have genuine fears of relegation but they head into 2023 looking refreshed with plenty of new additions to Daryl Powell’s side.

A trio of Catalans’ Dragons is one of the eye-catching hauls as they’ve managed to pry Gil Dudson, Josh Drinkwater and Sam Kasiano from the French outfit who have become a regular in the playoffs.

Another signing from a French outfit was actually a re-signing and that saw Matty Russell return to the Halliwell Jones whilst a further two signings arrived from the NRL in the shape of experienced forwards Paul Vaughan and Josh McGuire.

It would seem the off-season was going brilliantly for the Wire but they only have two pre-season friendlies arranged with one being a late addition, and the other Ben Currie’s testimonial set for February 4th against Leigh Leopards.

The Wire did add that second game in with North Wales Crusaders visiting the Halliwell Jones just six days after Leigh and perhaps more concerning, just six days prior to their season opener against Leeds Rhinos.

It’s now been revealed why this is the case with the Wolves’ social media highlighting that they’re currently undergoing some warm weather training in Portugal.

Players can be seen getting reps under their belt in sunny Portugal taking advantage of the Mediterranean heat and avoiding the cold northern winter.

Another reason why Warrington may have opted to delay any warm-weather training until January would be the number of internationals who returned late from the World Cup, and therefore key players like George Williams who excelled at the World Cup wouldn’t be able to play.

Utilising warm-weather training is something that is commonplace in sports like football and so it’s no surprise to see Super League sides doing the same, heading abroad to a warmer climate has multiple benefits in terms of mental health, the actual practicality of not having to work on frosty hard ground and then also the longer days in the sun meaning that simply more can be done.

Hull KR were another side to take a warm-weather pre-season camp but theirs came prior to Christmas in Spain, but they might have wished they’d have delayed it till January like their Super League counterparts Warrington based on the current weather in Humberside.

Rovers shared an image to their own social media highlighting the keen frost that was to be seen at their training ground earlier, highlighting that the decision taken by Warrington to sacrifice a muddy cold pre-season friendly for some actual intense training whilst abroad could pay dividends.

The proof will of course be in the pudding and it will be interesting to see how Wire fare with a potential lack of game time under their belts compared to fellow 2022 bottom-half sides such as Wakefield, who have taken on plenty of games, and KR who have opted for warm-weather training eight weeks out rather than four weeks out.

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