Warrington Wolves hunting for elusive Easter form

Correspondent

Warrington coach Tony Smith has acknowledged that his team are a long way from finding their best form so far in Super League this season.

The Wolves head into Thursday evening’s game at Widnes Vikings on the back of defeats to St Helens and Huddersfield, but Smith feels that no team in the competition has yet hit their straps completely.

“Our form’s not great, but it’s probably a bit like everybody else’s in the competition,” he said.

“I don’t know if anybody’s really set the competition on fire just yet.

“Even the two teams on top have had their good matches, but their not-so-good matches as well.

“I’m not sure if consistent form is on anybody’s list as yet.

“We’re looking for it, and hopefully we can get a bit of it over the Easter break.”

Widnes have a good record in recent seasons against the Wolves, and Smith is expecting another tough test from the Vikings.

“They’ve had the bragging rights on us a couple of times over there in recent years,” he said.

“So we’re keen to get the bragging rights back.

“It’s going to be a tough one. They’ve got a lot of forwards playing at the moment, and some of their backs are very good at taking their opportunities.

“So we’re going to have to be on our game.”

Meanwhile, the Wolves players, despite the demanding Easter schedule, will be in for training, to keep them moving as much as anything else.

“We’ll have a couple of training sessions in between,” Smith confirmed.

“It’s really important to get the recovery right, and get over the bumps and bruises from the Thursday.

“We’ve scheduled in a bit of training over Easter. If you ask most teams what they’re doing they’d be training over Easter.

“It’s more part of it nowadays – the recovery.

“But it’s also important to get bodies moving again after matches, and sitting at home eating Easter eggs and hot cross buns isn’t the best way to prepare for games of rugby league.

“So we get them in and get them moving, and they’re happy to do so.

“If you gave the players a choice of whether they were in or not, when they know they’ve got to perform well on Monday, they’d certainly choose to come in and train.”