Warrington Wolves 2024 season review, February and March

As such, we’ll be conducting a month-by-month review of The Wire’s first campaign under the charge of head coach Sam Burgess over the coming weeks.

First off, we’re starting with February and March as the Burgess era got underway in earnest…

THE start of a new campaign always brings about excitement, whoever you support.

For Warrington Wolves, it also brought about a fair amount of intrigue. Could Sam Burgess – a modern-day icon as a player but completely untested at the top level as a head coach – lead them back into contention for silverware?

There was a fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not he could, not helped by an underwhelming showing against Leigh Leopards in Joe Philbin’s Testimonial match, and he had been handed a tough assignment to start with – a trip to Perpignan to face Catalans Dragons.

With Josh Thewlis unable to travel as he awaited the birth of his first child and Matty Russell injured, the first of what would be many bold Burgess calls came when 17-year-old Arron Lindop was thrown in at the deep end on the wing for his senior debut.

He marked it in fine style by scoring the opening try, but that would be perhaps the only positive memory as The Wire were beaten 16-10 in Round One despite the Dragons playing the entire second half with 12 men following Michael McIlorum’s sending-off.

Arron Lindop's acrobatic try on debut was the highlight of the Round One loss in Perpignan (Image: Joe Richardson/Warrington Wolves) Red cards would continue to be a theme in the early weeks of the campaign as players and officials alike battled to get accustomed to new laws on head contact – the nadir of which came in The Wire’s first competitive home game of the year.

It was a night on which Warrington won, beating a depleted but game Hull FC side 36-10 to get themselves off the mark, but rugby league lost when Hull’s Nu Brown was sent off following an entirely accidental clash of heads with Ben Currie.

It was an incident that sparked outrage and prompted a rare ‘mea culpa’ moment from the Rugby Football League, who admitted the interpretation of the framework for the incident was wrong and that lessons would be learned.

This accidental head clash between Ben Currie and Nu Brown saw the Hull FC man controversially sent off in Round Two (Image: Mike Boden) For Burgess and Warrington, though, the wheels were in motion and as February turned to March, they started to pick up momentum.

Routine victories over Castleford Tigers and London Broncos came either side of perhaps the most impressive result of the early rounds – a 22-20 victory over Hull KR at Craven Park in Round Four thanks to Matt Dufty’s late winner.

That game was always going to be seen as something of an acid test of the progress Wire had made, and it showed the signs were positive.

Matt Dufty scores the winning try at Hull KR in Round Four (Image: SWPix.com) London were then beaten again to get their Challenge Cup campaign up and running as things continued to look positive, with youngsters such as Leon Hayes and Adam Holroyd making their mark having been given extended runs in the side.

Then, however, came a quick reunion with Catalans – the only side to blot their copybook to date – and what followed was a chaotic, topsy-turvy Easter showdown.

A nightmare start saw Warrington fall 18-0 behind and lose Paul Vaughan to the sin bin within the first 15 minutes and while they rallied to keep themselves in the game at half time, another Dragons burst seemed to take it away from them again.

However, another rousing riposte saw them draw to within four points of the visitors, but they could not reel them in and the Burgess era had another setback.

With the campaign now in full swing, Warrington had taken clear strides forward in some areas but doubts still remained about their ability to mix it with the best.

Wire won five of the seven games they played in February and March, with both defeats coming against Catalans Dragons (Image: Mike Boden)

Warrington Wolves results, February and March 2024

February

Saturday 17…Catalans Dragons (A) - lost 16-10

Friday 23…Hull FC (H) - won 36-10

March

Friday 1…Castleford Tigers (H) - won 30-8

Thursday 7…Hull KR (A) - won 22-20

Sunday 17…London Broncos (A) - won 58-4

Saturday 23…London Broncos (H) (Challenge Cup sixth round) - won 42-0

Saturday 30…Catalans Dragons (H) - lost 32-24