MARK Applegarth heaped praise onto York Knights’ next opponents Warrington Wolves, backing Thursday night’s hosts to go on and challenge for the Betfred Super League crown.
The Knights are looking to get back to winning ways after falling to a 22-14 defeat to Leigh Leopards last weekend, but face the first of a few hard challenges when visiting Warrington this evening (8pm).
Currently sitting in fourth position in the Super League, the Wolves are six points off of leaders Leeds Rhinos, with a game in hand, having won three of their last four matches.
It’s a test Applegarth is looking forward to, with the head coach saying: “They are a great team.
“Sam [Burgess, Warrington head coach] and the team are doing a great job there, I think that not only are they are a genuine threat and title contenders this year, but how they are blooding some of the excellent youths that they’ve got will set them up well for years to come.
“They are future proofing themselves there, that’s probably the biggest difference that I’ve seen as an outsider looking in on Warrington.
“There are genuine Warrington academy products throughout the team that are going to be the heartbeat of that team for years to come.
“Massive credit has to go to Gary [Chambers, Warrington director of rugby], Sam and the rest of the team there for how they are doing that.
“There’s some cracking players there, mix that in with some of the experience and the punch that they have got, it shows why they are where they are.
“We’re looking forward to it, we’re in a block of four games that are a real test for us.
“They are benchmarks to kind of see where we are at, and we can’t wait to get stuck in there.”
Similarly to Applegarth, Burgess is another young head coach at Super League level and has impressed in doing so.
Applegarth ticked off the number of quality players in the Wolves ranks, and has been left impressed by how his opposite number has built Warrington up for the future, saying that they were set for years to come.
The Knights boss added: “It’s alright people from the outside looking in and saying they’ve got this resource, that resource, these players – you’ve still got to put it all together.
“I’ve said that all along with Matty [Peet] at Wigan, I don’t think Sam is any dissimilar there.
“They’ve got some fantastic young players and they obviously spend well, they’ve got some international class players.
“They shop at the top end of the market and I think they have a real genuine team spirit about them as well.
“They have strike throughout the field, you look at some of the names on the field, [Danny] Walker at nine is probably going to be one of the England hooker’s, George Williams as England captain, Matty Ashton back fully fit, you’d have to say he’s one of the England wingers.
“[Josh] Thewlis at the back, I coached him in the England youth ranks and he’s an absolutely outstanding player who is fulfilling his potential.
“[Cai] Taylor-Wray, they had the luxury of playing him in the reserves this week, [Ewan] Irwin coming through is showing just how good he is.
“It just shows you that they are doing things right, and Sam’s got to take a lot of credit for that.
“It would have been quite easy for Sam to buy in who he wanted and to do a job as such, before going back to Australia.
“But he’s genuinely building good foundations at the club that will be there when he’s decided that his time is up there.
“I have massive respect to Warrington as a club for how they are building that ship from the ground up.”
The Knights have had a lot of close-knit games with some of the Super League heavyweight this season, and that trend continued when they hosted Warrington last Mach.
Having gone on to lose 38-30 at the LNER Community Stadium, York had recovered from an 18-0 deficit to make the game more competitive for the neutral.
Applegarth wants avoid a similar slow start, reflecting: “It’s early in the season so there’s a lot of water under the bridge, but I think we started really slowly in that, if I remember right.
“Warrington started really fast, I think we went 18-0 down.
“That’s something we have to be aware of, but it’s a different sort of year for us.
“There’s five games to go and there are still areas of our game that we feel we aren’t up to scratch in, and we want to get more consistency in.
“That’s kind of what I’m after at the moment, as I’ve said all along, until you’re happy with the brand of rugby that you’re serving up and are doing it consistently throughout 80 minutes, the opposition is kind of irrelevant.
“I’m mainly chasing that consistency in us, making sure that we’ve got a squad that feel empowered enough to play how we want to play, and coached well enough that they can do it for 80 minutes.
“That’s what myself and the team are chasing at the moment.”
Share