Hull FC ran out big winners over Warrington.
Sam Burgess has conceded that his Warrington Wolves side were ‘flat’ against Hull FC on Saturday evening but he doesn’t believe that they ‘gave up’.
The Wire were hammered 34-2 by the Black and Whites. They took the lead through a Marc Sneyd penalty but then conceded 34 unanswered points against a youthful and makeshift Hull side.
Of course, Wire are missing key players too, none more so than George Williams, with the club enduring another night to forget at the MKM Stadium. They saw Lachlan Fitzgibbon sin-binned for a hit shot on Sam Eseh, who subsequently failed his HIA and were unable to recover after Hull raced ahead after some quick-fire tries.
“The bottom line is that my team are a bit flat at the moment,” Burgess said post-match. “We were trying hard and the yellow card hurt us and the 18 unanswered points in that 10-minute period were tough.
“We were chasing but we’re just missing so many guys as they are. We overtried and lost any ascendancy in the game. It’s a tough one because we tried in a lot of areas but it’s not working for us at the minute.”
Asked if his Warrington side gave up, with Hull taking advantage of some soft defence to score points in quick succession, Burgess continued: “I think it’s a fair question and I’d say no. If they had given up, it could have been 60.
“You saw Cai (Taylor-Wray) chase back on (Aidan) Sezer, and you saw Lachlan Fitzgibbon dive in the corner on (Harvey) Barron. You can look at the end result but if you look at the things in the middle of it, there’s effort in a lot of areas. Is it top-quality effort? Is it good enough for this standard? Probably not but there’s effort. They’re not giving up but it certainly deflated them when there were three quick tries.”
However, despite the tough nature of Warrington’s season, which has derailed after the Challenge Cup final defeat to Hull KR, with the primrose and blue outfit set for a disappointing eighth-place finish, Burgess believes they can respond next year.
He explained: “I truly believe good things will come from this period; I’ve seen it as a player. We’re going through a bit as a team and the players are all learning bits about themselves and each other at the moment, which will only make them stronger and a bit more resilient and hardened to the brutality of the sport.
“Good things will come of it. For those that are sitting in the negative tree, just hold on because good things will come; I do know that.”
Asked what he said at half-time, with Wire 22-2 down, Burgess replied: “I said a lot actually. I wanted them to know that I cared about them and they looked a bit flat; they looked defeated and I didn’t like seeing them like that.
“I didn’t care what happened in the second half; I just cared about the response from each other and they got their heads up and put their shoulders back and they behaved like men, although it was a tough night.
“I thought they did. We completed at 60 per cent; we were chasing the game in the second half, but they scrambled, and they did work hard for each other. It’s one of those years, but they did respond to what I spoke about at half-time.”
And as for Fitzgibbon’s yellow card, Burgess added: “I didn’t see it. I struggled to put 18 together today. Just hopefully the MRP sees it; if some of those were Grade As last week, then I reckon that’s a Grade A.”