Warrington Wolves talking points after defeat to Hull KR

Their return to home soil following memorable away victories over neighbours St Helens and Wigan Warriors was wrecked by fellow high-fliers Hull KR, who ran out deserved 22-4 winners to go top of Super League.

For Sam Burgess and his Wire side, it is back to the drawing board as they now find themselves on the outside looking in at the top two.

Here, our Wire reporter Matt Turner picks out five key post-match talking points from the Round 20 action in “The Morning After”

Back down to earth with a bump

Over the course of a season, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Warrington Wolves have sailed serenely through some pretty calm waters of late, but they certainly got choppy in this game and they did not handle it at all well.

In many ways, it was reminiscent of the way in which they fell down in the Challenge Cup Final in that any attempts to build pressure were scotched by their own failings.

And against a high-quality outfit who got the basic fundamentals of rugby league absolutely spot-on, that was always likely to cost them.

Over-reacting and reaching for the panic button would be hasty, but bouncing back from this disappointment in a way befitting a side with top-two aspirations is paramount.

Hull KR were richly deserving winners, but Warrington need to take the lessons on board.

(Image: Paul Currie/SWpix.com)

A taste of their own medicine

Wire’s recent five-match winning run has had a common theme running through it – fast starts.

In each of those games, they have opened the scoring inside the first 10 minutes – often inside the first five – but on this occasion, the shoe was on the other foot.

From pretty much minute one, Hull KR established physical dominance and never really relinquished it. They found metres easy to come by even when their hosts didn’t give them a helping hand, whereas Wire found an electric pink wall in their way.

In wet and slippy conditions, establishing a 10-point lead within the first 20 minutes allowed the visitors a crucial advantage and as Warrington found out, this was not a night to be chasing games.

Wire too quick to release the pressure

Particularly in the first half, any real attempts to build pressure inside the opposition half were undermined by sloppy errors and the concession of cheap penalties.

Some of the credit for that has to go to the Robins, who dominated collisions to either force knock-ons or keep the ruck quick enough to make sure the only way Wire could slow it down was to infringe.

As a consequence, their usual precision with the ball was shaken out of them by the pressure they had been put under.

On at least two occasions, Wire created overlaps that should have resulted in tries but wrong options were taken, including right on the stroke of half time when Matt Dufty opted to kick in-field when a glance to his left would have spotted both Arron Lindop and Matty Ashton primed for walk-ins.

Rodrick Tai then failed to release the ball to Josh Thewlis in a similar situation after the break – just two examples of their clouded thinking with the ball.

They had to go off-script to try and force their way back into the game, but they were never really allowed to get it right.

(Image: Paul Currie/SWpix.com)

Bateman shows promise but too many off-nights elsewhere

An hour-long stint and a mixture of middle and edge – John Bateman’s debut was probably one of the only positives Warrington could take from this game.

His introduction certainly helped flip some of the momentum Wire’s way in the first half and considering he only pitched up from Australia this week, he can be pretty happy with his own personal display.

Around him, however, there were too many players who were simply off-colour – players you expect so much better from.

George Williams certainly falls into that bracket, but this was one of those nights for the half-back where try as he might – and it can’t be said he didn’t try – nothing quite worked.

He’s certainly not the only one but as a senior leader within the side, he will no doubt mark himself harder than any quick-witted observer.

(Image: Richard Sellers/PA Wire)

Have Wire missed the chance to finish top?

It may be too soon to say that as there’s still seven games to go, but they have certainly put themselves at a disadvantage.

The scale of what they have to do won’t become clear until Wigan play their game in hand on Tuesday night against Leigh. Then, the table will be balanced and we will find out the extent to which Wire are playing catch-up.

Let’s have it right, to be in with a shout of finishing top of the pile at this stage of the season has taken plenty by surprise and probably exceeds realistic expectations for this year, but the fact they’ve had a taste of it means this bitter pill will be harder to swallow.

All they can do now is keep their own house in order and position themselves to capitalise on any slip-ups while avoiding any more of their own.