Everything Sam Burgess said after watching Wire lose to Red Devils

SAM Burgess was keen to allay concerns surrounding his Warrington Wolves side after they suffered a third straight defeat in all competitions.

Last week's Challenge Cup Final defeat was followed up by another flat showing on their return to Super League action, with a nightmare first half proving costly against Salford Red Devils.

The Wire went in at half-time 19-0 down and eventually fell to a 25-14 loss to lose further ground on those at the top of Super League.

However, he was quick to dismiss fears history was about to repeat itself in terms of the alarming mid-season drop-off that underpinned Warrington's 2023 season.

Here is everything the Wire head coach had to say post-match...

Q: Was that a Wembley hangover we just witnessed or was there more to it than that?

SB: There was probably a tiny bit of a hangover, yeah. A tiny bit.

Q: You’ll have wanted to start the game well to ease any nerves but going that far behind, did it put nervousness back into the players and drag last week’s memories to the surface again?

SB: This might sound silly, but we didn’t start the game too badly.

They scored three long-range tries but we’d controlled the possession quite well, we were winning the territory battle.

They took some chances with a couple of offloads and they got three breakaway tries on us in the space of about 10 minutes.

It shocked us. We were in control of our game and I thought we played better early today than we did last week, but that’s sport.

Q: What do you say to the group at that scoreline at half-time? Do you throw the book at them or did you have to be a bit careful?

SB: I didn’t throw the book at them because I don’t think it works.

There were a couple of moments we had to be better in – Nene Macdonald and Tim Lafai hurt us tonight and Marc Sneyd kicked the ball well.

That comes down to doing your job individually – that was the message.

Literally three plays in that first half really hurt us.

Q: Is this a big test of you as a coach now in terms of how you move the team forward? You’ve clearly built a lot confidence and momentum but the last week or so will have naturally eaten away at that?

SB: Not really, not for me at least or the players.

We’ve had a tough period – we’ve lost to Wigan twice and then came off a short turnaround into this game.

Salford came to play – they were at 90-odd per cent completion, the penalty count was 4-1 and they made one error in the first half.

They executed their game plan, they took some chances and it paid off for them.

When I look at our performance, there’s parts I like but others I don’t.

Q: There are fans out there who watched this team drop off in form towards this point last year and that’s clearly fresh in the memory for them but for you, are you conscious not to panic?

SB: It’s a different team now. That was last year and we’re different now. That’s my response to that.

Q: Working on the principle that you learn more about your team in defeat than you do in victory, what have you learned about your team over the past few weeks?

SB: They don’t give in at all. I love their effort and I’ll never question that.

They fought right until the end tonight and I love that aspect of the team.

At 19-0, they could have quite easily come out and not had a go, but that’s not the case.

We’re just in a little period of a moment that we’ve got to get through. It will test our culture, but its been tested before and we’ve come out on the other side.

Q: Will you find out more about the players now, do you think?

SB: I think the players are finding more out about themselves too.

I’ve got a fair idea about who they are as players and people and in losses, you see a bit deeper into people.

They’re together in there, which is important. We’ve got to be honest and reflect on a couple of moments, but we’ll enjoy a weekend off after tomorrow’s work.