Warrington spread their wings

Warrington coach Tony Smith has revealed that owner Simon Moran was “blown away” by the coverage rugby league receives in Australia, and that partly prompted their pre-season tour Down Under.

Smith and his Wolves squad departed for Sydney on Saturday and will face South Sydney Rabbitohs in a high profile trial game at Redfern Oval on Saturday January 28th.

Warrington are very much a club on the up having won the Challenge Cup twice in recent seasons, as well as winning the League Leaders shield last season, while their Halliwell Jones Stadium ground has been expanding over the close season, with two corners being filled in to increase capacity to over 15,000.

Smith, who coached England during the 2008 World Cup in Australia, said: “We usually go on a warm weather camp somewhere in the world and we’ve come a bit further this time. 

“Our owner (Simon Moran) came to Australia last year and was blown away by the Rugby League coverage. He’d like to promote our name, the Warrington Wolves, and promote it in the heartland of Rugby League in this country.”

The Wolves have already met up with familiar faces in the shape of Andrew Johns and Chris Hicks during the tour, while they have also bumped in to brothers Sam and George Burgess, who could both line-up for the Rabbitohs in the friendly game later this month.

Smith added: “It will be a good test for us. We’ll be playing a strong side and this is our only warm-up game before our competition starts so we’re going to put out a really strong team and I think we’ll put on a good display as well. We’ve got a pretty talented team.”