Tony Smith has confidence in his hungry Wolves

Warrington coach Tony Smith believes his Wolves are in good shape ahead of Friday night’s clash with Wigan Warriors.

The play-off semi-final should be a cracking clash, and Smith wants his men to stay in the hungry mood that has seen them progress this far.

“The fact that we’ve been playing week-in and week-out in sudden-death sort of rugby league is a good thing for us,” he said.

“We’re hungry to keep training, and hungry to turn up next week to train and spend some more time together.

“If we can do that, we’ll be pleased.”

Warrington lost their last game with Wigan 24-20 at the DW Stadium on September 11. Smith is expecting an equally exciting encounter this time around.

“We’re high-quality teams and our last game came down to the last play of the game,” he said.

“We kicked into the in-goal. We didn’t score, but had we maybe passed rather than kicked we could possibly have drawn or won that game.

“We’ve had some of those sort of games with each other in recent times, and there’s no reason not to expect something similar.”

With Ben Westwood‘s fitness in considerable doubt for the game, Smith is relieved that he has a handful of in-form backrowers from which to choose.

“We’ve got a really good back row at the moment,” he said.

“James Laithwaite‘s made tremendous inroads this year, and developed his confidence. He’s turned into a good, solid Super League player.

“Trent Waterhouse is coming to the back end of his career and still performing, while young Ben Currie comes off the bench and does a great job, as well as Ben Harrison.

“So there’s a number of options there for us, and a number of competent players playing well.”