Warrington Wolves head coach Tony Smith insists he is not pushing the panic button just yet despite watching his side get put to the sword on Easter Monday by Castleford Tigers.
The Tigers climbed up to second in the table with the 40-6 win while Wolves are down in eighth, with five defeats from the first ten rounds of Super League action.
Michael Shenton grabbed a hat-trick for the Tigers while Michael Monaghan scored the Wire’s only try as they slipped to their heaviest defeat since a 62-18 loss to London Broncos in August 2012.
But with a break from Super League as the Challenge Cup returns next weekend, Smith has called on his troops to use this defeat as the catalyst for an improvement in the coming rounds.
“I can remember a feeling of going to Catalan about two years ago and getting pumped by a similar score,” said Smith.
“But I think we went on to win the Challenge Cup that year and finish the year very, very strong so some of these days can really bring you together as a group and focus you.
“That’s what we’re going to have to do, we’ll get out there again in Super League in a couple of weeks’ time and our focus will turn over to Challenge Cup this week and we’ll regroup and refocus.
“Nobody shone for us out there. I’m not saying people didn’t try, but there wasn’t too many shiners or glowing lights in our team.”
Meanwhile, St Helens have been knocked off the top of the Super League table after a 40-26 defeat to Widnes Vikings.
The defeat, coming as it did just three days after their derby loss to Wigan on Good Friday, is a big dent in their previous 100 per cent start to the season.
And head coach Nathan Brown admitted his side had struggled to cope with the hectic Easter schedule.
“With four or five minutes to go, we were still in it, but the score probably reflected the game,” he said.
“The guys had plenty of fight in them – 18-4 down and we fought our way back – but credit to Widnes.”
Elsewhere defending champions Wigan Warriors continued their revival after a slow start to the season as they thrashed crisis club Bradford Bulls 84-6.
The Warriors ran in 15 tries in all, following up their derby day success over Saints to stay fourth in the table with a game in hand, and head coach Shaun Wane was purring after the result.
“Their attitude really impressed me over this Easter period. I wanted the manner to be good,” he said.
“After 20 minutes we had completed at 100 per cent and we were defending really well.
“After a good win on Friday with such a short turnaround I thought it was really impressive and it was a fantastic win for us. Some of the tries we scored were outstanding.”
