HAVING enjoyed a two-week break from fixtures, it is now an uninterrupted run to the end of the Super League season for Warrington Wolves.
The first of their 12 remaining regular-season games sees them welcome Huddersfield Giants to The Halliwell Jones Stadium on Friday night.
Here, our Wire reporter Matt Turner assesses five key pre-match talking points surrounding Wolves' preparations to face Ian Watson's men...
Back to business
It feels like it’s been a while, even if it’s been less than a fortnight.
Warrington Wolves are back and this time, it’s for keeps (sort of).
No more breaks – one long run until (hopefully) mid-October but for the next 12 weekends at least, we can count on some live rugby league.
The Wire are in a strong position to at least stretch that number to 13 – maybe even 14 or, dare we say it, 15 – but now it is crucial they cash in.
Wigan and St Helens showed signs of starting to pull away and now, Warrington’s task is to stop them from disappearing into the distance as well as keeping those with designs on snatching their top-four spot from below at bay.
Can Wire team result with performance this time?
If the results continue to come in, do performances really matter?
It’s a red-hot debate in the round-ball game at the moment given England’s fortunes at the Euros and among certain sections of the Warrington fanbase, there is a certain fixation with how things look.
Whether simply winning is enough to satisfy varies from person to person but for Sam Burgess, he is pretty insistent that despite leaving Hull with two points last time out, his side will have to play a lot better moving forward.
Rugby league is a little more black and white than football – if you complete less than half of your sets and make 19 errors as Wire did at Hull FC, you will lose nine games out of 10.
The fact they didn’t is an anomaly and they cannot count on being as fortunate again.
Youngsters to get their chance in the pack?
The one change we appeared to be sure of earlier in the week was Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s return to the second row having not been seen since a back injury forced him off at Wembley.
However, we now know there will be at least two more after Joe Bullock and Max Wood were left out of the 21-man squad having been on the bench at Hull.
Fitzgibbon’s return may mean Adam Holroyd simply reverts to the interchanges, leaving only one spot to fill with Lucas Green or Tom Whitehead seemingly best placed.
Both are known to have impressed Burgess of late – the Wire boss was highly complimentary of Whitehead’s display against Wigan last month while Green enjoyed an impressive outing for the reserves against St Helens at the weekend.
The omissions of Bullock and Wood may mean Wire’s bench is on the small side, however, whoever he chooses to sit alongside Zane Musgrove and Sam Powell.
Don’t expect the same again
If things go as smoothly as when Wire and Huddersfield last met, we’d all be very pleased indeed.
Burgess’ boys were red-hot in a scorching St Helens to blow the Giants away in the Challenge Cup semi-finals, winning 46-10 to confirm their return to Wembley after five years away.
On the face of it, Ian Watson’s side have not picked up in terms of form having lost three of the four games they have played since then, but their second-half display in Perpignan to come close to overturning a 22-point half-time deficit will no doubt offer encouragement.
Friday’s visitors also know that if they are to retain any kind of hope of making the top six, they need to get moving as time will now start to work against them.
Put simply, Wire cannot expect their opponents to knuckle under as quickly and as easily as they appeared to do in St Helens – unless, of course, they make them.
A home win overdue
Would it surprise you to know that Wire’s last home victory was two months ago?
Granted, there have only been two home fixtures since Hull KR were vanquished at The Halliwell Jones Stadium on May 9, but that is starting to feel like an awfully long time ago.
With the greatest of respect to Huddersfield and next week’s opponents Leeds Rhinos, these back-to-back fixtures in their own back yard will have been put firmly in the “winnable” category by many and having spent a lot of time on the road of late, Wire will surely be keen to give their home crowd had something to celebrate.
Given they face the three teams currently above them in consecutive weeks after them as well, these two matches feel pretty key in terms of building momentum.
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