Warrington Wolves talking points following Wigan Warriors defeat

The Wire's dreams of lifting the Challenge Cup are in tatters after losing to 12-man Wigan Warriors at the DW Stadium yesterday.

The inquest will now begin but with a five-day turnaround until their return to Super League action, time is of the essence.

Here, our Warrington Wolves reporter Matt Turner dissects some key talking points from the game...

A shameful exit

“Embarrassing,” “unprofessional” and “shambolic” were among the words thrown around by supporters reacting to this defeat.

It is hard to argue with any of them. Warrington Wolves will get criticism and derision aplenty following this loss and they have no choice but to take it on the chin.

The first-half performance was comfortably the worst 40 minutes they have dished up this season and despite a fightback of sorts after the break, they got precisely what they deserved from this game.

And all of this against a side that were hamstrung by a seventh-minute red card…

While Kaide Ellis’ sending-off did not give them the divine right to win the game, it presented Warrington with a gift-wrapped glorious opportunity to reach the semi-finals. An opportunity they could not take advantage of through their own failings.

Peter Mata'utia and James Harrison sink to the ground in disappointment at full time (Image: PA)

A lack of leadership?

When Ellis was dismissed, the correct approach would have been to methodically build pressure and keep faith that, eventually, the dam would break.

What happened was the complete opposite as Warrington recklessly chased points. Instead of keeping their heads, they lost them.

And as a result of their complete lack of respect and care for the ball, they ended up draining their own tanks by being forced to do more defending than was necessary.

This was the point at which the supposed leaders of the side needed to grab hold of the side and calm things down.

Who are they? Where were they?

Only themselves to blame

Wire’s error-strewn display even stretches the notion of “shooting themselves in the foot” to breaking point – some of their play was akin to shooting themselves in the head.

Having nobody at dummy-half to receive the play-the-ball 10 metres from their own line is the kind of thing no professional rugby league side should be doing and it was among the lows of a first half in which they made a staggering 12 handling errors and completed at around 40 per cent.

At any level of the game and no matter how numerically disadvantaged the opposition are, you are asking for trouble with figures like that and as such, Wire have only themselves to blame for what happened.

Yes, they can lay claim to having three second-half tries chalked off including Josh Thewlis’ effort that would have snatched victory were it not for a forward pass, but they can have no complaints about any of the decisions.

This loose Peter Mata'utia offload was one of the 12 handling errors Wire made in the first half (Image: PA)

Thewlis a bright light on a dark day

This was a very bad day for Warrington but that is not to say there were no silver linings to the clouds.

One of them was the display of Josh Thewlis, who was among the only players in primrose and blue who could truly feel satisfied with his display.

Were it not for his nerveless handling of Harry Smith’s high kicks and other key defensive interventions, Warrington would have been staring at a much larger half-time deficit.

Add that to his ever-committed yardage carries and you have a performance worthy of praise.

Undoubtedly, there are plenty of Wire players who need to take a good, hard look at themselves and what they dished up at the DW, but Thewlis is not among them.

Josh Thewlis was nerveless under the high ball and came up with several excellent defensive plays (Image: SWPix.com)

Inconsistent patch claims a major casualty

Despite the position of strength Warrington still find themselves in on the Super League ladder, this kind of performance is nothing new unfortunately.

For at least a couple of months now, their displays have been wildly inconsistent when within games let alone week-to-week and as a result, there are plenty of fans whose patience is wearing incredibly thin.

Now, this period of patchy form has its first big casualty with one of the three trophies available now out of the question. If that isn’t enough to shake them from their slumber, there is clearly something very wrong.

Everyone involved – players AND coaches – needs to ask themselves “am I doing all I can to stop this from happening?”

Only an emphatic response to this humbling – both at Castleford on Friday and beyond – will be accepted by a supporter base that is growing increasingly frustrated.