WARRINGTON Wolves' never-say-die attitude in the Super League VI opening defeat to Wigan impressed coach Darryl Van de Velde.

Despite being down to 12 men for more than half the match the Wolves did not burn themselves out and showed they have the stamina for the long season ahead.

Straight after the game Van de Velde said: "The players held in there during the second period which was pleasing. I was proud of the effort. They tried right up to the back end of the game which is important.

"It is very hard to play Wigan with 13 players on the field let alone 12 because that puts you under enormous pressure.

"The sending off certainly didn't help our cause and there are no complaints about Toa Kohe-Love's dismissal.

"I thought we had started positively and we had a number of good opportunities to score on top of our early try but failed to come up with any points."

Van de Velde was not pleased with the second half brawling.

He said: "Some of the incidents at the back end of the game I was not happy with.

"There was a lot of frustration out there I think.

"My players believed they could go to Wigan and win and obviously became a bit frustrated which is disappointing."

But in terms of the Tawera Nikau dismissal in the 79th minute Van de Velde was surprised that the clash with Wigan's former Australian Test star David Furner had appeared to spark the brawl.

He said: "I didn't think there was much in the incident."