A VICTORY that was as valuable as it was well-earned.

It would have been easy for Warrington Wolves to clock off in this one, with a Challenge Cup semi-final on the horizon.

The same was also true of Hull KR, but the full-strength sides named by both sides was as clear an indication of the value Sam Burgess and Willie Peters put on getting two points from this game.

As it happened, there was only one side whose desire and desperation for those rewards shone through – and that was the men in primrose and blue.

Even from as early as the warm-ups as the players charged and thudded into tackle bags without a hint of self-preservation, one got the sense the Warrington players were tuned in for this one and the duly hit their shellshocked visitors with perhaps their best half of rugby of the year to date.

Laser-focused and razor-sharp, they put the blowtorch under a Rovers side that had taken defending champions Wigan Warriors and league leaders St Helens to the cleaners in consecutive weeks before this one.

It was akin to the display that stunned the Saints in the Challenge Cup last month and perhaps the only disappointment is that the scoreline did not blow out in a similar manner when it perhaps ought to have done.

The Robins’ right edge – a unit containing Super League and NRL winners in Joe Burgess and Tyrone May and a New Zealand international who once lit up these parts in Peta Hiku – was tortured, terrorised and taken apart by Wire’s lethal left, with Toby King having a field day as he marked his 150th appearance for the club with two classy tries.

With that in mind, the fact many peoples’ pick for player of the match – including Sky Sports’ – was Warrington’s right winger goes to show how superb Josh Thewlis was on the night.

He may not have got the rewards in terms of tries although his increasingly-accurate goal-kicking was a key difference in the visitors being unable to get close, but his superb work in yardage and his key defensive interventions were influential.

It was efforts like Thewlis sprinting in off his wing to produce a try-saving tackle on Jez Litten and Jordy Crowther flying out of the line to catch Mikey Lewis on the sixth tackle inside his own 30 that typified another display of grit and connectivity off the ball.

They got themselves out to a lead and when the time came to defend it in the second half – and let’s face it, Hull KR were never going to go quietly – they did so brilliantly.

Wins in these kinds of games can only aid Wire’s chances of emerging at the top end of the current logjam of teams at Super League’s summit, while it also sets them up nicely for their tilt at Challenge Cup glory.

If they continue to produce this kind of all-round display, good luck stopping them.