Sam Burgess has made it his business to keep his emotions in check for most of his tenure as Warrington Wolves coach – which made his reaction to Rodrick Tai’s crucial try here in the final quarter of a compelling contest leave no doubt about what this result would have meant to him and his players.
To be clear, it is still far too early in proceedings to be suggesting there is any form of early-season pressure on Warrington. But Burgess set the bar so high in his first season as a head coach last year by reaching both major finals that the very sight of the Wolves being as low as ninth with a third of the Super League season gone suggests something is not quite right.
How he would have feared another miserable evening here at certain stages too: but by the end, he was left celebrating a win that will rank as one of his proudest – and potentially one which could ignite their stuttering start to the season. Without his talismanic half-back and England captain, George Williams, due to injury, the sight of his half-back partner going off before half-time with what was confirmed post-match as a fractured eye socket left the Wolves bereft of any attacking direction.
At that stage, they had crafted a well-earned 16-14 half-time lead but you felt that St Helens would surely be able to run out winners from that point. But instead, the Wolves cobbled together an attacking spine at the interval and arguably improved even more to register a seventh straight win over their local rivals: inflicting more misery on them in the process.
“We had so much go against us with a lot of adversity to overcome,” Burgess said. “I didn’t think I had any players left at half-time. I’m lost for words because they’re so resilient and made some real hard choices. I reckon it’s my proudest day as a head coach so far with this group.”
This could end up being a season-defining evening for both teams. While the Wire were magnificent, this was another tepid display from a St Helens side who look a shadow of the team that won four successive league titles between 2019 and 2022.
“There’s no getting away from the fact we were poor,” their coach, Paul Wellens, said. That, unfortunately, is a drastic understatement. They were lucky to only be two behind at the break, having trailed 16-4 following Warrington tries from Toby King and a brace for Matty Ashton, before the Saints centre, Mark Percival, plucked two individual moments of brilliance from nowhere to narrow the deficit.
You would have assumed Marc Sneyd’s withdrawal would have buoyed the Saints. Instead, they continued to flatter to deceive, with Warrington going further ahead when Ashton completed his hat-trick six minutes after the restart. The visitors’ attack huffed and puffed with little success, with their senior players continuing to struggle in the big games yet again.
They have now lost 15 consecutive games against the teams who finished in last year’s top three: Warrington, Wigan and Hull KR. Tai’s try as the game entered the final quarter here, with the contest in the balance, provoked a huge reaction from Burgess on the touchline, with it opening up a crucial 12-point gap as time began to run out on the Saints.
Warrington then scored again through their full-back Matt Dufty, as the away support began to make their feelings clear. St Helens scored a consolation through Jon Bennison but by then this contest had long since been decided.
