Warrington Wolves boss Sam Burgess was “very careful” with what he said post-match in regards to Josh Thewlis’ yellow card in victory over Leigh Leopards.
Wire ran out 24-10 winners in the Challenge Cup quarter-finals, but they had to do it tough as not only did a key forward exit the field early but they were down to 12 men for a period in the game after a controversial sin-binning.
Thewlis was sat down for 10 minutes after intentionally delaying a restart. After George Williams’ kick went dead, he patted the ball into the crowd to give his side a few extra seconds to get set for the next play, however referee Jack Smith deemed that act to be worthy of a yellow card.
The decision left Burgess confused, with him saying to Super League+ straight after the game that he would have to watch it back before making a verdict.
In his post-match press conference, the Warrington boss was cautious in how he worded his answer when asked his thoughts on Thewlis’ card.
“I’m going to be very careful with what I say, because you’re not allowed to tell the truth,” revealed Burgess. “You have to say what they want you to say otherwise you land yourself in trouble.
“Let’s just say it didn’t really hurt us too much. In fact, I thought when we went down to 12 we actually became ourselves a little bit more, and I think we figured out and we remembered what we are as a team.
“We got back to that in that [10-minute] period, so maybe I’m grateful for the yellow card.”
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Warrington Wolves boss shares injury update on Aussie duo
Star full-back Cai Taylor-Wray made his return this week after a month on the sidelines. He replaced Josh Thewlis who shifted back to the wing, meaning there was no place for Josh Smith, who has had a sublime start to the season at his new club.
Smith was perhaps the obvious choice to drop out, but Burgess revealed that the speedster picked up an injury in training this week, confirming his decision for him.
“Unfortunately, Josh picked up an injury in training on Thursday. But, I was going that way anyway [dropping him].
“It’s only a small injury, maybe two or three weeks, but he’s been wonderful for us has Josh.”
Another returnee was prop Luke Yates, however unlike Taylor-Wray, his comeback game came to a premature end as he left the field due to injury in the opening quarter of the game.
Burgess revealed: “He came back with an issue, but we were happy with the way we’ve managed it.
“It stirred up, so maybe he came back a little bit early on that, I don’t know. He’s got a bit of an issue in his neck and his shoulder, so we’ll assess that over the next few days.”
