Smith pinpoints Warrington’s crucial second-half spell

Warrington coach Tony Smith felt that his team only played to their full potential and to their proper planning for a short time in the second half of Saturday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final with Leigh.

The Wolves won a close game 34-24, ad Smith felt the period just after the interval was crucial to how it turned out.

“How we played at the start of the second half is how we planned to play in the game,” he said.

“And we did for large degrees of it, even the first half, but we just lapsed on some of their last plays.

“We let ourselves get behind because they scored off their last plays twice, and then one off our last play as well.

“So there was just softness about our defence at times. I thought overall that our offence wasn’t direct enough in the first half, and we turned over too many balls.

“In the second half, we got hold of the ball and ran hard and ran through the middle, and probably broke their back.

“But I’ve got to say that Leigh were very spirited, and took their opportunities and put us under pressure for big parts of that game.

“They showed that they’re a really competitive team.”