GARY Chambers says his Warrington Wolves side can learn plenty from the win at Huddersfield Giants that secured their spot in the play-offs.
The Wire sealed sixth spot with a 20-8 win at the John Smith's Stadium as the hosts never fully recovered from falling 12-0 behind inside the opening quarter.
Warrington will now visit St Helens in the eliminator round next week and Chambers believes there was plenty there can take forward into the game as well as things to work on.
Here is what he said in his post-match press conference...
Q: Happiness and relief in equal measure for you no doubt?
GC: Oh yeah – when we set out, this was where we wanted to be but we can’t have it that that’s it.
We’ll prepare well and go again – we’ve got St Helens and we’ll look forward to it.
Q: You had a very measured, controlled start to go 12-0 up but do you think you missed a chance to make it a little easier for yourself from that point?
GC: We were trying to finish in corners and complete high, but we lost a couple of balls mid-term.
We knocked on a couple of times in midfield and it just changed the momentum a little bit.
When you get to this sort of stage and things get tight, you can’t do that so there’s some learning for us to do there.
Q: It did get quite tight at one stage in that second half but what was it you feel allowed you to keep Huddersfield at arm’s length?
GC: They were good at half time – they were saying all the right things.
We didn’t say too much because they were on it. You can tell when there’s energy in there and they were annoyed more than anything that they conceded that try at the end of the first half.
We spoke about the fact we were still in the lead even though they’d scored that try. The momentum was still with us and it was about building again and defending well.
Q: Do you think this kind of game will probably serve you well going into the play-offs given how you ground it out and took the points when they were on offer?
GC: I spoke to one of the Huddersfield lads there and they were saying it was proper play-off rugby.
It was a tough game that was end-to-end, but we were just taking the points when we could. That’s what we’ve got to practice.
We didn’t turn the ball over quite as cheaply as we did against St Helens and we took some hits as well, which we had to do.
Ultimately, it’s worked for us.
Q: You spoke in the week about the start you got off to against St Helens so you were clearly pretty keen to invest heavily in those first 10-15 minutes tonight?
GC: It was a big focus for us – we thought if we got off to the right start, we had enough there.
Injury-wise, we were fresh and we spoke about positives in the week. We hadn’t covered a lot of mileage in training and we were fresh as a squad.
Q: Do you think your kicking game won you that, from George Williams from hand and then Stefan Ratchford off the tee?
GC: I thought George Williams was absolutely outstanding in everything he did, so that was key for us.
Stef doesn’t rack up the number of points he has for us without doing the job in big moments.
I’ve got to say the minutes Jimmy Harrison put in there were exceptional as well.
Q: You go into the play-offs now against St Helens – people probably won’t expect too much from you but does that mean you can go into it with no pressure on you?
GC: It’s up to us. Bring it on and see how we roll.
Q: You will have to go into it without Paul Vaughan but is there a sense within the camp of “doing it for him,” so to speak?
GC: I really feel for him – I told him I was absolutely gutted for him because he wants to play.
He’s only missed one or two games, he puts the minutes and the time in but he’s now going to miss the big occasion.
The lads have got around him and we’ll try and do something for him.
Q: Do you think he can still play a big role in terms of being around the place and helping with preparation?
GC: He’s good in the changing room and we had him in there tonight.
He’s an infectious character and he’s good to be around, so he will be good for them.
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