Warrington Wolves talking points before London Broncos trip

They will hope Sunday's trip goes much better than the last one - the scars of the Challenge Cup Final loss at Wembley Stadium are still pretty fresh - and more like the first, when The Wire hammered London Broncos 58-4 back in March.

As they make their second trip of the season to the Broncos' impressive Cherry Red Records Stadium home ground, they do so bidding to bounce back from Friday's loss to Hull KR and stay in the hunt for a top-two spot.

Here, our Wire reporter Matt Turner picks out five key talking points ahead of the Round 21 clash...

A clear picture of what’s required

Finally, the Super League table has something of a cleaner look to it.

Coming into Round 21, everyone has played the same number of matches after Wigan Warriors and Leigh Leopards played their outstanding Round Two fixture on Tuesday night.

Perhaps more pertinently, it gives everyone a clear picture of what they need to do for the next seven games to make sure they achieve their respective goals.

For Warrington Wolves, that will be securing a top-two spot and at worst, making sure they finish in the top four to earn themselves at least one home play-off fixture.

The gap to Wigan at the top is now four points, with Hull KR in second now two points ahead following their win at The Halliwell Jones Stadium last week.

Neither gap is insurmountable by any means, but what can be said for certain is that any slip-ups from now on will start to get more and more costly.

Wire sit third in the Super League table ahead of the trip to London (Image: Paul Currie/SWpix.com)

Selection balance to be struck

After Friday’s game, Sam Burgess hinted that a couple of his players might be in line for a rest this weekend.

That comes after the group in its entirety were given a long weekend off after an intense few weeks, but Sunday’s team may look quite different to the one that turned out against Hull KR.

There are plenty of key players to come back in with James Harrison, Toby King and Joe Philbin – and maybe even Lachlan Fitzgibbon – in line to feature as the squad gets healthier by the week.

However, there is a balance to be struck as there is still a game to win.

As we have discussed previously, the margin for error is getting slimmer and while there is no disgrace in losing to a fellow high-flier such as Hull KR, being beaten by London – with all due respect to the Broncos – would be far less palatable to a fanbase expecting a strong response.

Mike Eccles’ side have already shown what they are capable of by beating Catalans – a team who, let’s not forget, have bested Warrington twice this year – last weekend, so it should not be seen as the points difference-boosting foregone conclusion many are labelling this game as.

All about mindset

It may well turn out to be what we’ve described above, as Wire’s last trip to the Cherry Red Records Stadium was – they ended up cantering to a 58-4 win in Round Five back in March while they also dispatched the Broncos 42-0 in the Challenge Cup the following week.

If Sunday’s game is to follow a similar theme – as many expect and demand it to – a lot will depend on the mindset with which Warrington arrive in the capital.

If they arrive motivated and driven to put last week’s defeat behind them, the rest SHOULD take care of itself.

On paper, the team Sam Burgess is able to name will likely be superior in terms of experience and quality to the one his counterpart can, but the game is played on grass.

Wire beat London Broncos 58-4 when they visited back in March (Image: Nigel French/PA Wire)

Will Bateman’s role become clearer?

As we wrote in our selection dilemmas piece earlier this week, this will probably dominate that particular agenda for a little while yet.

Bateman is here for a good time, but not for a long time so if and when he’s available, you’d imagine he would be in the 17.

That much is probably a given, but where will he play? And will that become any clearer this weekend?

The answer to the latter is probably not – that will likely be decided once everybody is back on deck and available as Burgess has hinted at making certain changes this week.

What Burgess will hope for this week, however, is that Bateman’s partnerships with those he is playing alongside show signs of development.

Beware the buoyed Broncos

London are probably everyone’s second team this season given the unbelievably harsh hand they have been dealt by IMG.

Having beaten the odds to gain promotion back to Super League, they were basically given an indicative IMG grade so low that they were effectively consigned to a return to the Championship for 2025 before a ball had even been kicked.

Naturally, that made recruitment nye-on impossible and even more naturally, that in turn has meant they have struggled to compete on the pitch – their 20 games thus far have seen them concede just under 37 points per game on average while their mean points scored figure is just 10.5 per game.

As the old saying goes, however, you’re only as good as your last game and for London, that was pretty good indeed.

Catalans Dragons, who like Wire have designs on silverware, found out just last weekend that a trip to London can be quite the banana skin.

Having pulled off a famous 12-10 victory, the Broncos will be bouncing and keen to get their hands on Burgess’ boys.

London Broncos players and fans celebrate their victory over Catalans on Sunday (Image: PA Wire)