Daryl Powell comments on Warrington Wolves defeat at Leigh

After falling behind 14-0 they were always chasing the game and although the deficit was reduced to eight points at the break and they started the second-half strongly The Wire never looked likely to get the job done against opponents who made it their sixth win in a row.

“It was a static start,” said Powell.

“We never really fired a shot in the first half.

“We got a couple of tries and I thought we were lucky to go in at half time with that 20-12 scoreline.

“I just thought we got dominated from start to finish.

“We had some opportunities in the second half but we never really had any sort of clarity or cohesion to get the job done.

“We were pretty rattled at that point and it showed in our attacking play.

“It was a really disappointing effort.

“I thought Leigh were really good and played right at the top of their game.

“Their middle-unit boys were excellent and just bashed us. We didn’t handle it that well, and we made too many errors and gave too many penalties away and conceded tries on the back of that.

“It’s frustrating. We were way off where we want to be and it’s probably been coming if you look at a couple of weeks where we’ve been winning games but not being great.

“I think we’ve got to rediscover some of the things that we were doing earlier in the season and get back to it.

“Thankfully we get another opportunity in a week’s time, with a little bit of a longer turn around.

“We can freshen the boys up. Coming back from Catalans is always a tough one, and I’m not making any excuses. I thought Leigh thoroughly deserved the win.

“We had a lot of our fans here and we didn’t give them enough to get behind which is a real disappointment for us.

“Sometimes there are reasons why your energy levels aren’t where they need to be. I don’t think it was because of Catalans, but it does have an impact as it was a tough game last week.

“Leigh were great. They just dominated us in every facet of the game and fully deserved the win.”

Despite being played off the park in the first half, Joe Philbin’s converted try with the last play of the period was a lifeline with 20-12 looking more achievable for a comeback than 20-6.

There was certainly more purpose about Wolves’ play in the third quarter, piling the pressure on Leigh instead of being on the end of it.

The kicking game and more ferocity in defence contributed to that.

“I don’t know why it takes until half time for us to have that defensive intent that we showed straight after, but it did which is disappointing,” said Powell.

“We have to find a different motivation to be doing that on a regular basis because that’s what rugby league is, it’s what a champion team does I believe and we didn’t have that.

“I said at half time that I think we were lucky to be where we were, but at eight points down we had a good chance if we flipped the game.

“We were in a worse position against Salford at home and ended up flipping that game but we were never good enough to do that sort of thing in this one.

“They were eight points in front all the way through that period. If you close that to two, your confidence grows, the opposition become more nervous and start doing things that maybe they didn’t want to do, but we just couldn’t quite do that.

“We got over the line twice but their defensive resolve was pretty good and they held us up. We just weren’t good enough to win that game.

“At the start of the year if we’d said we’d be two points in front at the halfway point in the competition then you’re going to take it.

“However, we’re not going to be two points in front for much longer if we keep doing what we’re doing at the moment. We’d get reeled in.

“We need to change our mindset a little bit on what we’re doing and I think we need to practice better and that will lead into better performances.

“We’ll respond next Sunday against Hull in Newcastle for sure and I think it’s important that we do.

“We’ve a few knocks but we look alright. I don’t think anyone’s got an injury.”

Riley Dean was brought back from his loan stint with Featherstone Rovers in the league below to replace the suspended Josh Drinkwater but it was one of those nights where few Wire players got the chance to shine.

He was withdrawn from the action midway through the second half, with Peter Mata’utia taking on the half-back role instead.

“Riley did some good things. He got belted round the head which rattled him a little bit and that was the reason why I made the change,” said Powell.

“That combination of George Williams and Josh Drinkwater has been working well for us, it’s been a consistent combination, and Riley’s been going well at Featherstone so I thought it was a good opportunity for him to step in and see how much he’d improved through playing consistently in the Championship.

“As a half-back you are reliant on what happens in the middle of the field and what happened in the middle wasn’t great for us so I wouldn’t put too much on Riley Dean for what happened.”