Warrington Wolves 2024 season review, August highlights

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.

READ MORE > Check our reviews of February and March, April, May, June and July

Today, we look at August as The Wire looked to maintain their push for a top-two finish…

THE season was heading towards the championship rounds, and Warrington Wolves were in an excellent position.

They were riding high both literally and figuratively – top of the table and with memorable away victories over near neighbours Wigan Warriors and St Helens to savour in consecutive weeks.

Their position at the summit had some context attached in that Wigan still had a game in hand but as they entered August, their hopes of finishing inside the top two were very much alive.

However, such was the closeness of the race, a slip-up at this point would significantly dent those hopes and unfortunately, one came at an inopportune moment.

Hull KR visited The Halliwell Jones Stadium having lost twice to Warrington this season, while they were also without a victory outside of Yorkshire since the early days of 2023.

A victory still would have sent out a statement that Warrington were serious contenders, but instead it was the Robins that relayed a message to their rivals by recording an impressive 22-4 victory.

John Bateman made his Wire debut against Hull KR in early-August (Image: Richard Sellers/PA Wire) It was one of the very few occasions during the season that Wire were comprehensively outplayed in a game, and the 18-point margin was their biggest in terms of defeats under Sam Burgess.

Having been sitting pretty, the tables quickly turned and now, Warrington were on the outside of the top two looking in with their margin for error greatly reduced.

Their second trip of the season to an improving London Broncos side that now held real hopes of avoiding finishing bottom was to follow, and nothing other than a strong response would do.

In the end, Warrington got two points from the Round 21 game – but not much else.

In a game that was far more chaotic than they would have liked, Burgess’ boys were given a huge scare by the Broncos, who refused to be shaken off and sensed a seismic upset when they closed to within six points of their more illustrious visitors inside the final quarter.

Wire held their hosts off and were thankful to Matty Ashton for two breakaway tries – the second of which was the 100th of his career – that proved decisive.

Matty Ashton races clear to score his 100th career try and seal victory in London (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures) That was the first of four consecutive games on the road – a tricky proposition as they tried to hang onto Wigan and Hull KR’s coattails.

Then came Magic Weekend and Wire had drawn the short straw, facing Leeds Rhinos in their home city in front of a partisan Elland Road crowd.

However, only a single corner filled with primrose and blue was left singing as, not for the first time, Matt Dufty inspired his side to victory.

Despite picking up a knee injury during the first half which would eventually need to be corrected by surgery, the mercurial full-back played through the pain and scored a second-half hat-trick to secure a precious 24-6 victory.

Matt Dufty inspired Wire's Magic Weekend win over Leeds Rhinos (Image: Neil Ashurst/P&B Pictures) That came after George Williams had opened the scoring, picking up the scraps to race home unopposed after a highlight-reel tackle from Rodrick Tai on Lachlan Miller had forced the Leeds full-back to spill the ball.

That terrific treble turned out to be Dufty’s last contribution for a few weeks but with him on the shelf, an opportunity was afforded to one of the club’s brightest young talents.

And during the following week’s trip to Castleford Tigers, we saw exactly why there is so much excitement about the potential of Cai Taylor-Wray.

His superb individual try lit up the Mend-A-Hose Jungle and set Warrington on their way to what turned out to be a relatively routine but nevertheless important 28-6 victory.

Cai Taylor-Wray breaks free to score against Castleford (Image: PA Wire) Next, though, came a real test – a visit to a Leigh Leopards side in the midst of a charge towards a play-off spot and in a purple patch of form.

It was a game that had the potential to be the highlight of Round 24, but the decision to show Paul Vaughan a red card for a seemingly innocuous tackle on Owen Trout after just 11 minutes weighted things heavily in Leigh’s favour.

Wire were already 4-0 down at that point and actually outscored their hosts with 12 men, but a 16-12 defeat appeared to deal a fatal blow to their top-two hopes.

They had secured themselves a play-off spot, but their chances of making their road to Old Trafford as short and as favourable as possible were out of their hands.

Paul Vaughan trudges off having been sent off against Leigh Leopards (Image: SWPix.com)

Warrington Wolves results, August 2024

Friday 2…Hull KR (H) lost 22-4

Sunday 11…London Broncos (A) - won 36-22

Saturday 17…Leeds Rhinos (Magic Weekend) - won 24-6

Friday 23…Castleford Tigers (A) - won 28-6

Friday 30…Leigh Leopards (A) - lost 16-12