THIS game probably won’t live long in the memory, but Warrington Wolves won’t care.
It may not have been pretty as the conditions made the kind of free-flowing rugby many expected Wire to hit Hull FC with at best devilishly difficult and at worse impossible, but they got what they wanted from the game – namely a return to form.
It also shouldn't be forgotten that they had one fewer interchange than usual, whatever the circumstances may have been, and while some of the absences were through choice, they were missing plenty of first-choice players.
Still, they were arguably on a hiding to nothing in this game – they were expected to win and do so comfortably – and having avoided the banana skin it presented, can it be said they accomplished the three things they really wanted from Round 10 – a win, an improved display and coming out unscathed?
Well they certainly accomplished the first of those and from the moment Josh Thewlis put them ahead, the result never really looked in doubt.
The first of the winger’s well-taken trio came as a result of a sustained period of pressure in a start to the game that saw them put on a wet-weather clinic – having started their past two games poorly, Sam Burgess will no doubt be pleased to see his side get back to coming out of the blocks strongly.
That brings us onto the second part, and we can probably give Wire a pass mark on that too.
Of course, they could have been a little tidier – if anything, a lot of their errors came from them trying to be a little too expansive when keeping things simple and turning the screw would probably have resulted in more points.
Hull do deserve credit for not letting the scoreline blow out when, at 24-0 with still more than a quarter of the game remaining, the game could have easily run away from them, but the hosts did get a little loose in the final quarter with the game won.
That said, the game was always within their command which is more than can be said for the previous two matches.
With the above two things taken care of, Burgess’ next priority will have been to make sure he came out of the game with as many players as he entered it with ahead of a key period of games coming up.
While there will have been a sharp intake of breath when Matt Dufty, who once again sparkled at full-back, went down with a knock to his ankle late on, but he was able to play on before coming off for a breather in the closing minutes.
Barring anything coming up during the week, however, they look to have emerged with a clean bill of health.
As such, this game can now be packed up and moved on from with Warrington having got what they came for.
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