Smith: Great defensive effort
Wolves got back to winning ways last night against Salford. Head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith was pleased with the improvement he saw from his side. Here he gives his overall feedback on the game.
"I was happy with a lot of aspects of it. With the ball I don't think we attacked very well. I thought we were very patchy particularly in the second half although we did some good things in amongst it. I thought we lacked a little bit of control of the ball but defensively I thought we were outstanding and that's really what we wanted. We've been critical of ourselves in recent times over the points that we've conceded - to only concede an intercept try tells you a little bit about your defence I think. We invested a lot of energy into that which probably made our attack a little bit scrappy but if that's the price we've got to pay to get a bit of backbone in our defence then it's a price we are prepared to pay.
"That was the least number of points we've conceded this year by a long way and that was largely down to us and the way we went about it. I'm not having a crack at our opponents there as they've put on some decent attacking in recent weeks and have been able to score points themselves so I'm not taking anything away from Salford tonight.
"When your defence is firing it makes you hard to be beaten. Fortunately tonight we were able to stem the dangers of Salford.
"I thought there were some really good efforts right throughout the team defensively - if I look at the overall game I don't think offensively I can say anyone was outstanding. Richie Myler got on the end of and finished off some nice stuff. He was enterprising there, took his opportunities well and had some spark with the ball. The boys in the middle did some hard work for us as well. Sometimes the little flashy blokes get the accolades but some of the other boys invest a lot if energy in getting them there too.
"It's hard to be good, flashy and play open style rugby (in this weather). We are seeing exactly why we don't play in winter. Most games are mistake-riddled and rely a whole lot on your kicking game. This was another part where I thought there were big improvements for us. I thought our kicking game was good and it's got to be otherwise you are just going to be defending on your own try line.
"As soon as the sun comes out, watch out because there's going to be some fantastic Rugby League to be played."
Next Up: Warrington Wolves v Huddersfield Giants, Friday 22nd March, 8pm, The Halliwell Jones Stadium
Tickets on sale in WolfWare, at WolfWare Online and on 08448 11 11 76 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm)
16, Mar, 2013
