TONY Smith felt the failure to make the most of some opportunities and a second-best kicking game led to Warrington Wolves’ defeat against Hull Kingston Rovers at the Murrayfield Magic event in Edinburgh on Sunday.

He accepted that the absences of Adrian Morley and Paul Wood probably hurt Wolves’ battle up front over the 80 minutes but was pleased that young substitutes Mike Cooper, Lee Mitchell and Matty Blythe gained some game time to aid their continued development.

Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby said: “I thought we created a lot of good stuff, a lot of good rugby league.

“I was pleased with a lot of what we did.

“There were a couple of opportunities that we needed to take but didn’t, but there wasn’t much beteen the two teams I thought.

“It was a pretty good game of rugby league and I thought it was one of the better games I’d seen over the weekend and could have gone either way.

“Having said that, I thought Hull KR deserved it in the end, mainly due to their kicking game.

“I thought their kicking game was better than ours in the second half, which pinned us down a couple of times.

“I’m not too discouraged. I’d like to have got the two points, they’re all crucial at the moment.

“If the team keeps playing in that kind of manner I think we’re going to win quite a few games between now and the end of the season.

“We were down a few experienced players but that’s the way it goes.

“We were already without Mozza and Woody had to pull out on the day.

“We were hoping Woody was going to be okay. He’s been struggling a bit with a back injury, so that was a little bit disruptive.

“And obviously we were without Lee Briers. So there were a few experienced players from the previous week out of the game but that gave an opportunity to a few young guys on the bench. That’s how they get experience.

“Mozza and Briers will be back soon, I hope. None of them are long term - in the next week or two would be nice.

“But it was good experience for those young kids. Some of our young boys learned some lessons.

“We were pretty young on the bench, aside from Mickey Higham. And they did pretty well.

“A lot of encouraging signs there on Sunday. I felt we continued to play some good attractive rugby league, which I like to be involved in and hopefully that will continue.”

Wolves were dominant in the first half and Smith said: “Being further in front at half time would have been nice.

“We had a couple of opportunities that we didn’t quite take.

“I felt we did pretty well in the first half, controlled it pretty well and our kicking game was a whole lot better.

“In the second half, I felt we didn’t started it in the manner that we would have liked in terms of field position, and Hull KR were just starting to win a little bit of the arm wrestle that was going on between us.”

Smith said there were no major injury issues resulting from the game.

“Nothing of real instance,” he said.