John Cartwright has previewed our Betfred Super League Round 7 clash against Warrington Wolves on Saturday.
The Black & Whites are aiming to keep their unbeaten record on the road intact when they visit the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Looking ahead to Saturday’s battle against the Wolves, Cartwright said: “They’re a well-balanced side, but George Williams is one of the better players in the competition. Matt Dufty is very dangerous, and their hooker, Danny Walker, looks very clever to me. The key areas they really have a lot of quality in, and it’s a big job keeping them quiet. They’ve got a hard-working pack of forwards and a good finisher in Ashton. They’re a really well-balanced side.
“They’ve hit form. They had a hard start – they played Wigan over in Vegas, and there’s generally a bit of a hangover on the back of those games. The last three weeks they have been really impressive.
“It’s a home game for them, and over the last few years they’ve been a form team. They’ll have expectations to be in the top four again this year, so it’s going to be a real challenge for us.
“But I like how we’ve bounced back from the game – it’s been a good week of training, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s always about the reaction. You’re never going to win every game through the year, but it’s how you react. We won’t know that until after Saturday, but I’ve really been impressed with how we’ve trained this week and the attitude of the players coming back to training. It did hurt; it was a big loss, and there was a lot of expectation around the performance, so our pride took a bit of a hit, but it’s always how you respond. Training has been good, but now it’s where it matters – the eighty minutes at the weekend.
Looking ahead to a challenging spell of games against Warrington, Hull KR and Wigan, he added: “It’s going to answer a few questions about where we are at. The whole goal from the very first training session was to compete and go out and compete on every play. You can’t always control the result, but what we aim to do is to compete and compete hard on every play. If we’re near the scoreboard with 20 minutes to go, we always think we can win a game. That’s our mentality. That won’t change no matter who we are playing.
“It’s about us just preparing and trying to build that mentality where we go hard on every play.
“To handle it is all about the week and how you build into it. You’ve got to address the differences from game to game, and that’s the difficult bit. I’ve got to make sure they’re prepared to run out on the field, not lose their heads, keep their focus, and concentrate on what’s important.
“They’ve done that really well; to be able to come from behind in games continuously, it does show a level of coolness and sticking to what works for you. To a point, I was very happy with the way they stuck at it; it could have got very ugly with the scoreline, and there was a lot of momentum with KR, but we finally knuckled down and played the football we know we can play. We came up with a couple of tries, and that’s really important. It’s going to be the same atmosphere in a couple of weeks; we just need to tweak a couple of little things in our preparation and rely on our experienced players on the field to execute what we’re talking about.”
Cartwright is boosted this week by the return of spine player Cade Cust, giving the head coach a selection headache.
“It’s a tough one. I’ve been really happy with how Cade has played at six. He’s worked really well with Aidan.
“Jordan Rapana can play anywhere in the back line, but I definitely see Will as a six or a one. It will be what’s best for the team on the day regarding injuries. You also want to give them the best chance to build combinations, so once we settle on one, we’d like to give it time.”
On Pryce, Cartwright continued: “We’re fortunate to be able to add Will to our team. There’s no hiding it – he’s a class player. To come out and play on the weekend the way he did, I thought he was really strong, and he added something to our team.
“That gives us a variety too in those key areas. He can play half, he can play six, and he can play full-back. It’s a huge addition to our squad at this stage of the year.
“He’s more comfortable in his surroundings now. We’ve had two full days of training so far, and we’ve had the review of the game, looking at areas where we can get better.
“He’s a very naturally gifted football player with a good football brain. It’s not going to take him long to find his place in the side. I think just the fact that he’s over the jet lag and he’s settled back at home, that’s going to help him enormously as well.”
John Cartwright is proudly sponsored by Solutech.
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