TONY Smith praised Warrington Wolves’ defence after they held out rivals Widnes Vikings in the first friendly outing of 2015.

Ben Currie scored twice for the hosts and Toby King dived over in the second half in a 16-0 defeat of Denis Betts’ side, who were reduced to 12 men on three occasions.

But Wolves’ head of coaching and rugby Smith was impressed with the attitude his side showed in keeping their opponents out.

“The real big thing for us was our defence and the scramble of our defence,” he said. “I think they split us once where it looked like it was going to be a try in the far corner.

“Ben Currie was playing left second row and he was the player that put the pressure on the last pass in the right corner. If you’ve got that sort of attitude in your team it makes you tough to be beaten.

“Even when you’re under the pump and scrambling like that, that’s a great attitude to have.

“They’re really pleased with themselves for the ‘0’ part of the match – they’re really proud of their defence.”

Smith was also pleased with how Wolves moved the ball in wet and windy conditions at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, despite overplaying on occasions.

“It was a good solid hit out,” he added. “I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of spectacular rugby league played in conditions like that at this time of year.

“It’s a reminder of what we get when we play at this stage, it’s a tough sport to play in these conditions, but we made a pretty good fist of it overall.

“I liked what we did in that first 10 minutes after half time, but we overplayed for about five minutes after that.

“We showed we can still pass the ball and offload the ball, we just need to be a bit more selective in some of our decision making.”