SAM Burgess admits his Warrington Wolves side were made to pay for being “a fraction off” in certain areas by an impressive Hull KR side.

Indeed, he was keen to pay tribute to his great friend Willie Peters’ side as they won 22-4 at The Halliwell Jones Stadium to go top of Super League.

Burgess admitted some of his players looked “a bit tired” during the Round 20 clash and hinted at changes being made for next week’s trip to London Broncos, with several players waiting to return from injury.

Here is everything the Wire boss had to say post-match…

Q: Not the result or performance you’d have wanted tonight – just give us your thoughts on that game as a whole if you can?

SB: I think we missed the start a bit on both sides of the ball physically but before I say anything else, I thought Hull KR were brilliant.

They controlled us everywhere, they ran harder than us and tackled harder than us. It’s not a complex game, really.

They did the basics a bit better than we did, then we went away from our structure in the second half trying to chase it.

That was the pressure they put on us but sometimes, you’ve got to give credit to the other team.

We looked a bit tired.

Q: You’ll no doubt analyse your own side’s performance in time but as you mention there, was this a night where first and foremost, you have to hold your hands up and acknowledge you were beaten by the better side on the night?

SB: They were really, really good.

The competition is totally on and they showed us that tonight.

We’ve got a bit of work to do which is okay. We’ll review it properly and be honest with it.

There’s a couple of areas where we weren’t far off but when you’re playing a team as hungry as they were tonight, they made us pay.

Q: Is that a lesson you can take forward into the pressure games that will no doubt come at the end of the year – maybe even against Hull KR again – in that being just a fraction off won’t be something you’ll get away with?

SB: We’re learning lessons every week – win, lose or draw.

There’s loads of lessons in today. We know our performance wasn’t good enough to get us where we’d like to go – that’s the bottom line.

Q: You’ll no doubt be conscious not to overreact to this – you’ve had a positive few weeks but is it a case of taking the rough with the smooth?

SB: You’ve summed it up perfectly.

I won’t overreact – the guys have got a few days off now with the long turnaround and they deserve a little break.

I love the effort my team give every week – I can never question that – but we just weren’t quite there tonight.

We certainly won’t overreact, we’ll look at where we can get better and move forward.

Q: How do you feel John Bateman went on his debut? He seemed to play a bit of middle and a bit of edge?

SB: He’s come off a long flight – he got in Monday, trained Tuesday and he’s living in a hotel at the moment so he’s not settled by any means.

It’s our job to get him a bit more settled but I thought he was great. You can see how good he’s going to be.

He competes and is only going to get better given two or three weeks in the shirt, but he played 60 minutes I think with no worries.

He’s going to be great for us.

Q: Have you worked out what kind of role he’ll play going forward or is that still to work itself out.

SB: He’ll play anywhere – I’ve played with him when I’m left back-row and he’s left centre, when he’s on the edge and I’m in the middle or when he’s the middle and I’m the edge.

I know he can do all of those roles great because I’ve seen it. It’s just whatever one fits us best but we may not know that for a few more weeks yet.

What it does do is give us the opportunity to rest a couple of guys to give him some time in our system.

I’ve got some decisions to make, which will be pretty tough.

Q: Players like Lachlan Fitzgibbon, Toby King and Joe Philbin – were they all good to play tonight and was it simply a case of giving the players who played so well at Wigan another chance?

SB: That’s pretty much it, yes.

Q: Does that mean all of them will play next week?

SB: Fitz is the only one that I may give another week to, but the others will definitely play.

Q: Anything else picked up in terms of injuries?

SB: No, just some bruised egoes.