Warrington prop Paul Vaughan ‘disagrees’ Wigan were the better team – “we beat ourselves”

Warrington Wolves suffered a heart-breaking defeat in the Challenge Cup final, losing 18-8 against the Wigan Warriors. For head coach, Sam Burgess it means the opportunity to win silverware at the first time of asking slips by.

The game had a controversial opening five minutes, with two yellow cards shown, one for each side, for high shots. First Mike Cooper was shown a yellow card for Wigan before Matt Dufty was sin-binned almost immediately after.

For Warrington prop, Paul Vaughan, it also represented a missed opportunity in his first major final with the club. Vaughan joined the Wolves last season from the Canterbury Bulldogs and has been a major part of their good form this season.

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Vaughan believes Warrington Wolves “beat themselves”

Warrington had the better of the opening exchanges, before Wigan turned the game on its head with two first half tries. Bevan French, in particular, was inspirational for the Warriors are they overcame a resolute, but ultimately wasteful, Warrington side.

Asked whether he believed Warrington had been beaten by the better side on the day, Vaughan disagreed. He believes the Wolves were architects of their own downfall, and produced their worse performance on the biggest stage.

Vaughan said: “I think I disagree with that [Wigan being the best team]. I think we were, I think we beat ourselves. I think we probably left, you know, left our worst game on the biggest stage, which is quite frustrating. Obviously, you know, they got the points, but it’s hard to sort of say that, you know.

“It’s quite frustrating, but that’s OK, we’ll build from it. We’re building this year, we’ve had a great season so far and we’ll get back on the horse and we’ve got a game on Friday that we have to worry about now so we’ll keep moving forward.”

Vaughan does not believe the early yellows influenced the outcome

The main talking point from the game was the two yellow cards issued in the opening exchanges. Both contained elements of controversy and will certainly be debated in the aftermath of the game. Asked what impact the incidents had on the game, Vaughan stated he believed the incidents evened each other out.

“Well for them, you know, a middle gets sin-binned in the first eight minutes and in the next play, you know, on the next set, you throw the ball over the sideline, which is a bit frustrating.

“And then Dufty goes as well, so it sort of evens it up really, didn’t it, the game, but obviously a bit of a weird sort of start, but yeah, it is frustrating, all in all. ”

However, Vaughan believes the Wolves can take inspiration from the defeat, and use it as motivation for the rest of the season.

“I think we take some confidence out of it, obviously the scoreboard doesn’t only reflect how close the teams are, I guess, watching the game I think you can sort of see that we didn’t play so well, we completed not great. It’s hard to get a good gauge on, but I think we know deep down how good of a team we are and that’s what’s frustrating, that we sort of dished that out today.”