WARRINGTON Wolves’ coach Sam Burgess praised his side’s “shift in mindset” as they registered their third victory over St Helens this season.
The Wolves kept their hopes of a top-two Betfred Super League finish alive with a 16-2 victory over their local rivals at the Halliwell Jones stadium.
The victory leaves Wolves two points behind second placed Hull KR with two regular-season games remaining and Burgess’s side to face Huddersfield and London, while Rovers have still to face Leigh and Leeds.
Warrington claimed tries through Matty Ashton and Jordy Crowther, while Josh Thewlis kicked four goals in the win.
Burgess said: “We’ve improved our mindset – and we’re all seeing that in our performances.
“All year we’ve not had a game blow away from us, we’ve been in every contest and we’re always in the game so I’m proud of our efforts through the year. There has been a shift in mindset and we’ve just got to keep it going now.
“Defensively we were sound again today and although we need to tidy up in other areas it was a good job done.
“We weren’t as fluid with the ball as we were in practice this week but perhaps I’m expecting a bit too much, we never really got going with the ball but some of that may have been down to St Helens but overall I’m happy with the result.
“We’re aware of the situation we’re in and could do with improving our points difference but there’s no need to chase it, if we stay doing what we are doing the points will come but we probably didn’t ice some moments today.”
Meanwhile, St Helens coach Paul Wellens was left to rue his side’s discipline and errors.
Saints, who have never failed to reach the end of season play-offs, are in a real battle to finish in the top six this season and could need to win their last two games against Castleford and Leigh.
Wellens said: “This is high-end professional sport and you get punished for your mistakes and that’s how it should be.
“There are a number of penalties in there that are avoidable and we need to improve.
“At the back end of the year there can be big momentum shifts so it’s an area we need to keep working hard on.
“We are also making too many fundamental basic errors coming out of our half and on the back of that having to do a fair bit of defending.
“The errors and discipline take a lot of energy from the team so when you get the ball back you are digging deep to fine something. We were attritional and stuck at the task but just that something lacking we need to find.
“I love the way we competed and our effort and energy and we conceded two tries from a one-on-one miss and the other was a poor reaction to a ball that hit the deck.
“There were times in the game we really did scramble hard and turned up so there’s a lot to like in some respects but also a realisation that in the big games at the end of the year there are certain aspects of our game we need to clean up to give ourselves a chance.”
Punishing a mistake 👊
A superb Matty Ashton solo try puts the Wolves ahead 👏#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/kIhs8yjVAj
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) September 7, 2024
