Ratchford and Gidley combination growing
Stefan Ratchford says his halfback partnership with Warrington teammate Kurt Gidley is building every game and can get better.
Ratchford missed the start of the season with injury but has been paired with Gidley for the past few weeks following Chris Sandow’s absence with a hamstring complaint.
The pair were both prominent in Warrington’s 40-10 victory over Wigan last week.
“We’re building each week,” Ratchford told Love Rugby League.
“The first two weeks, I think we were pretty unlucky against Saints to be honest. We had no goal-kicker that week. And the Huddersfield performance was way off our standards.
“But the more time we spend with each other playing in the halves, the more comfortable we’re going to become and the better we’re going to be.
“We’re building each week and that’s all we can do. We want to keep building and keep getting better.”
Gidley has been one of the Wolves’ best this season since his arrival from the NRL.
Ratchford singled out the Austraian stand-off for praise.
“He’s been great since he come, he was great before he got here,” he said.
“He’s obviously a legend over there. It’s good to have someone like that playing alongside you.
“We talk to each other pretty well and the more game-time we get with each other the more we know how each other plays and I think that’s been shown in the past
couple of weeks.”
Ratchford said Warrington are looking to get back to delivering more consistent performances, after following their win over Widnes away with the victory at home against Wigan.
“It was good to get the win,” the 27-year old said.
“We’re happy with win, we’re happy the performance but we know Wigan have got a lot of quality players missing.
“They’ve got a lot to come back. But you’ve kind of got to play what’s in front of you and we did that in the right manner.
“We started off the season really well and then we’ve had two, three performances that weren’t up to our standards, which was disappointing.
“For us it’s about getting that consistency in our performances.
“We don’t want to be one of the teams that’s good for two weeks and then off for two weeks. We’re just trying to get some consistency.
The Wolves travel to Bower Fold this Saturday to take on Oldham in the Challenge Cup.
Ratchford said Warrington won’t be underestimating their Championship opponents.
“The challenge Cup is a really special competition,” the England international said.
“The last few years, going back a few years the club has a got a really good history with it. Going back-to-back and then again a couple of years later.
“We’ve been disappointed the last couple of years to get beat in the semi-finals.
“To be honest we’re quite thin in the squad on numbers, and they turned Hull KR over in the last round so we’re not going to be taking them lightly and I’m sure we’ll be going there with a full squad.”