Steve Price hails Warrington Wolves Challenge Cup Final win

The Wire upset the odds to stun massive favourites St Helens, coming out 18-4 winners at Wembley Stadium.

Despite having a patched-up team, Wolves executed their game plan perfectly to come out on top thanks to tries from Joe Philbin, Ben Murdoch-Masila and Lance Todd Trophy winner Daryl Clark.

> Warrington Wolves win the 2019 Challenge Cup

Price called his side’s display the best since his tenure at the club started as his players secured the first trophy of his reign.

The Wire lift the Challenge Cup trophy on the Wembley pitch. Picture by Mike Boden

“We had to give eights and nines out of 10 across the board today,” he said.

“I’m just really pleased for the players – they’ve worked their backsides off.

“I know what type of team I’ve got here. We haven’t being playing good football of late but I knew we could turn it on for the big day and we certainly did.

“This is the best performance I’ve seen in my time at the club. There were blokes out on their feet but they were hanging tough.

“All the pressure was on St Helens. It had to take a special performance to beat them but my Warrington team were special.

“It’s a great feeling to win the Challenge Cup.”

> VOTE: Who was your Wire man of the match in the Challenge Cup Final?

With star man Blake Austin injured, Ben Currie was named at stand-off but Jack Hughes did much of the work in the number six position, setting up Murdoch-Masila’s try.

Price spoke about his side’s plan and gave plenty of credit to Declan Patton – the team’s only recognised half-back – for his display.

“When Blake went down, we knew we had to do something different and tighten up our right edge,” he said.

“Jack Hughes put his hand up there and told me he would sort it out.

“His resilience to come back from a testicle rupture and put in a performance like that was unbelievable.

“We had to simplify our plan – we had another running forward which worked in our favour.

“I don’t know what our completion rate was but Dec Patton put in his best performance for a long time.

“Dec and Stef (Ratchford) had to take responsibility with the kicking game and our kicking game in that second half was outstanding.

A key moment in the game was a try-saving tackle from Bryson Goodwin on Saints winger Tommy Makinson, who was in full flight trying to touch down in the corner.

Price says they had talked that kind of play up in their preparations so that they were prepared.

“We had spoken all week about that,” he said.

“Lee Briers had done some work with Bryson on Tommy liking to stretch out his right arm to score tries.

“I want to thank all the true believers and supporters who stuck with our group of men.”

Video reaction above