Warrington has been through tough times in 2022
Ahead of Thursday’s Betfred Super League game at home to Toulouse Olympique, live on Sky Sports, Warrington Wolves sit 10th in the table.
They are four points above the relegation spot currently held by their Round 23 opponents and a 32-6 loss to Wigan Warriors last week means they have now won just two of their last 12 games.
This wasn’t how 2022 was supposed to be for Wolves. A star-studded team led by a man considered one of the competition’s finest coaches in Daryl Powell were set to battle for a long-awaited Super League Grand Final victory.
Instead, Warrington find themselves six points off the play-off places and risk being dragged into the relegation battle with four regular season games to play. The question is though, what has gone wrong for the club this year?
Brown: They’re mentally broken
One of the most damning stats for Warrington this year is that they haven’t conceded more than 30 points in a game in 2021, but have done so 10 times this year and lost all of those games in the process.
They have also been particularly prone to conceding tries in the final quarter of games and former Wolves half-back Kevin Brown sees this as a sign the team are feeling the burden of the wait that has been imposed on them. This year.
Brown, who spent three seasons at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, believes problems finding the right combination in halves and England international George Williams not playing to his best instincts are also to blame for their woes .
Former Warrington player Kevin Brown explained why his former team was struggling
“First of all, I think they’re mentally broken,” Brown said. sky sports as a guest pundit in the loss to Wigan. “The wait has been a burden all year.
“They’re looking for a magic formula. They didn’t find that in the halves; they moved Stefan Ratchford there, Peter Mata’utia played there. George Williams, for me, he plays on instinct.
“I remember [former Huddersfield Giants head coach] Nathan Brown tells me, it’s not when you make a bad pass or something bad that affects the team, it’s when you give up the game, and I think he’s not playing his instincts.
“He thinks about it too much, he takes too long, and I’ve been thinking about it about this Warrington team all year – I don’t think they have a big enough, strong enough pack to have the firepower to go after people in the middle.”
BJJ: It’s a multitude of reasons
Wolves haven’t been helped by injuries, particularly one which has seen full-back or half-back Gareth Widdop set to be ruled out for the rest of the campaign with a shoulder injury sustained on a trial during the Magic Weekend victory against the Catalan Dragons. .
Having to replace off-season signing Billy Magoulias, who returned to Australia on compassionate grounds in June, prolific goalscorer Josh Charnley and England international stalwart Mike Cooper at Wigan mid-season also didn’t help matters. .
Former Leeds Rhinos player and now assistant manager Jamie Jones-Buchanan, whose side beat Warrington 40-4 at Halliwell Jones Stadium in early June, believes it is difficult to pinpoint a single reason for their problems.
“We watched this team [at the start of the season] and said ‘look at all the stars on offer there’ and a great coach to Daryl Powell who has won Coach of the Year multiple times he will bring that together and create a hybrid of the success he has had [at Castleford Tigers]”, said Jones-Buchanan sky sports in the loss to Wigan.
“It’s not manifested, it’s not united and that’s for a multitude of reasons. It can be technical, tactical, spiritual, or environmental. There are a lot of questions to be asked.”
Jones-Buchanan also balked at suggestions that Wolves have sometimes been unlucky when it comes to making the most of some of the opportunities created with games still in play.
“I don’t believe in luck,” Jones-Buchanan said. “You make your own luck and good performances turning opportunities into points are really important for any team.”
Powell: Some unfair criticism
For his part, head coach Powell repeatedly defended his team and couldn’t have been happier with the work rate shown alongside him in the derby loss to Wigan.
Warrington head coach Daryl Powell reflects on a disappointing loss to Wigan in the Befred Superleague.
It was also another difficult night for the traveling Wolves fans, although the Warrington boss praised the way they stayed behind the team.
His aim now is to ensure they get back to winning ways for the first time since beating the Catalans of French club Toulouse 36-10 at Newcastle last month and aiming for what he considered as an unfair criticism of his team.
“There’s a lot of nonsense a minute, I thought the boys were working very hard [against Wigan] and struggled through it all,” Powell said. sky sports.
“I was really happy with the effort and the commitment; I think the fans really supported the boys there and they have to keep doing that because you can see they’re working really hard.
“We just need to win the game [against Toulouse]. I think there are some unfair reviews; we are in a difficult situation, there are criticisms that are fair, but we are looking to the future and building something special.”
Named squads
Wolves of Warrington: Kyle Amor, Matty Ashton, Joe Bullock, Daryl Clark, Jason Clark, Ben Currie, Matt Davis, Matt Dufty, James Harrison, Oliver Holmes, Peter Mata’utia, Tom Mikaele, Greg Minikin, Robbie Mulhern, Matty Nicholson, Stefan Ratchford, Josh Thewlis, Danny Walker, Jake Wardle, George Williams, Connor Wrench.
Toulouse Olympic: Latrell Schaumkel, Mathieu Jussaume, Paul Marcon, Corey Norman, Lucas Albert, Romain Navarrette, Harrison Hansen, Dominique Peyroux, Anthony Marion, Eloi Pelissier, Maxime Puech, Joe Bretherton, Chris Hankinson, Justin Sangare, Matty Russell, Olly Ashall-Bott, Nathan Peats, Lambert Belmas, Maxime Stefani, Tony Gigot, Daniel Alvaro.
