STEVE Price labelled his Warrington Wolves side’s win over Huddersfield Giants as “very gritty” and said his side had to “earn their stripes.”
The Wire’s first game for more than a fortnight ended with them going a long way to securing a Super League play-off spot, however many teams are in it.
Despite Daryl Clark opening the scoring early, they could not quite build on their positive start as execution once again let them down close to the line.
As a result, tries from Jake Wardle and James Gavet either side of half time had Luke Robinson’s Giants in front.
Clark’s second score – a superb long-range team effort – and one from Anthony Gelling earned them victory, however, as they shook off the losses of Josh Charnley and Jason Clark to first-half injuries.
Josh Charnley is treated. Picture by Mike Boden
> Update on Charnley and Jason Clark injuries suffered in first half
“They were scrapping hard tonight, Huddersfield. We had to earn our stripes,” Price said.
“I thought out first 20 minutes was really solid, if you take out our first two sets when we turned the ball over.
“Once we got in the grind, I thought we could have taken it out to 12 or 18-0 in that first 20-25 minutes. We just couldn’t finish it off.
“The errors started to unfold, they had a couple of resets and it snowballed on our try line.
“Credit to the boys, it was very gritty and they had to earn their keep tonight.”
Clark’s second score saw a hugely brave play rewarded as The Wire were just 30 metres off their own try line on the last tackle.
The hooker jumped down the short side and combined with Ben Currie and Toby King to send Josh Thewlis away down the right wing.
He found Stefan Ratchford in support, who then found Clark to cross.
> VOTE: Choose your Wire man of the match from win over Giants
Pictures by Bernard Platt
“It was a gold standard play,” Price said, recognising its impact in turning the game back in his side’s favour.
“Daz recognised that short side. It was superb by Ben Currie, Toby King and Josh Thewlis down that side and good support back through the middle too.
“It’s great credit to the guys and how they’re evolving and trying to get better.”
With talk of a curtailed regular season and an extended play-off series growing louder, The Wire put themselves on the verge of securing a spot.
Anthony Gelling touches down in the corner. Picture by Mike Boden
“That’s what we’re setting ourselves for,” Price said.
“You want to run into the semis with a bit of form and that was a stepping stone I felt.
“We’re still in a position to fight for a top two spot and even the League Leader’s so we’re desperate to finish the season.”
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