IF there is a team that knows how devastating this year’s Warrington Wolves side can be at their best, it is St Helens.
So as they prepare to welcome The Wire back to The Totally Wicked Stadium tomorrow, their head coach Paul Wellens wants to make sure lessons have been learned from their Challenge Cup quarter-final humbling.
Round 18 sees the two clubs meet in Super League for the first time this year, but Warrington’s 31-8 last-eight success in April is still fresh in the memory on both sides.
The neighbours reunite at differing ends of the form spectrum, with Sam Burgess’ men looking for a fourth straight win while Wellens is looking to avoid as many consecutive losses to ease some of the pressure building on him.
The Saints boss picked out the players he sees as key threats within his side’s opposition and also hailed the qualities of new Wire forward Luke Yates, who is set to make his debut after his move from Huddersfield Giants was brought forward.
“We obviously found out earlier on this year (in the Challenge Cup) how dangerous they can be,” he told our sister paper the St Helens Star.
“So we are going to have to perform well on the weekend and in particular defend well.
“They have got a lot of strike within their team – George Williams is obviously the most notable and Matt Duffy is having a fantastic season.
“They are very dangerous in the middle of the field, with Danny Walker out at nine and Matty Ashton on the flanks – there is a lot of speed there.
“Luke Yates is a very workmanlike – probably one of those players that a lot of his teammates love to play alongside.
“He seems to be one of those players that does a lot of the unfancied work, but all the unfancied work that he does do makes players around him much better.”
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