Long: Warrington wanted it more

St Helens interim coach Sean Long thought Warrington showed more desire to claim the two points during Friday’s clash between the two sides.

Saints were 14-0 ahead but were distinctly second best after the break and eventually suffered a comprehensive 40-18 defeat to the Wolves.

“We came up against a team who were facing a bit of adversity missing a few players and I thought they wanted it a little bit more than us and it’s a little bit disappointing that,” he said.

“We compounded errors with poor discipline and poor ruck defence. We’ll just have to dust ourselves down and get ready for a big game next week.”

St Helens lost captain Jon Wilkin in the warm-up before the game which weakened the leadership within the team to an extent, according to Long.

“I think sometimes we were looking around and saying what’s going on next, but the game plan was pretty simple tonight,” he added.

“I just thought we got schooled in the areas of run hard and tackle hard and I don’t think we earned the right to play footy tonight.

“We tried to play footy without earning the right and we got it the wrong way round.”