Sam Burgess conceded his Warrington Wolves side looked ‘rusty’ despite getting the opening round victory over Huddersfield Giants on Sunday afternoon. The Wolves were made to dig deep in West Yorkshire, but they had enough to record a 20-12 win to get their season underway on the right footing.
Warrington actually fell behind early in the game as Tui Lolohea saw the home side capitalise on a strong opening quarter of the game. After a period of sustained pressure on the Giants’ line, though, the Wolves got over just before the break through Aaron Lindop before putting their foot down in the second half.
Tries from Matty Ashton, Toby King and Matt Dufty proved enough to claim the result at the John Smith’s Stadium and while Burgess was pleased to get the two points in the bag, he admitted his side have a few things to fix up.
“There’s things we were OK at and things we were pretty poor at,” the Warrington boss told Sky Sports. “We looked rusty and we didn’t seem as connected as we usually can be.
“We’ll take the two points and we’ve seen other results this weekend be very tight and go the other way. Although it wasn’t perfect, we’re happy with the two points.
“Everyone is pretty ambitious this time of year and we’re no different. We’ve got a lot of things to fix up and a lot of things to get better at. It’s a long time until that time of year.
“We’ll tidy up things, we have a short week, a five-day turnaround, so we’ll just look at where we can improve. It’s a whole new team, a whole new season and the combos have got to start all over again so I’m just happy we got the two points.”
Warrington Wolves host Catalans Dragons next week at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, which has been renamed to the Luke Littler Stadium for the game, and Burgess is keen to see his attack link up a little smoother.
“Hopefully a bit more connection with the ball,” he said when asked what to expect from his side on Friday. “I thought we lost our way at times and we didn’t end our sets as good as we usually do and hopefully we can look a bit more connected.
“I thought defensively we were good in areas, we matched them up physically in the second half, happy with some areas.”
.@WarringtonRLFC take the two points in Round 1 💪#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/4NTMZAWXeC
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 16, 2025
