Sam Burgess discusses Warrington Wolves' Salford clash

Top of the pile is scrum-half Marc Sneyd, who has dazzled in the Red Devils’ solid start to the season.

As ever, his metronomic kicking game both from hand and off the tee has been central to his side, but head coach Sam Burgess insists he has full faith in the defensive systems his side have in place to stop him and Salford’s other key threats.

On the day, however, he says it will come down to a matter of focus for his players as he also picked out centres Nene Macdonald, who sits alongside Wire’s Matt Dufty in joint-second behind Sneyd on the Man of Steel ladder, and Tim Lafai as men they would also have to stop.

As well as leading the Man of Steel ladder, Salford's Marc Sneyd also jointly-tops the Super League assist charts with 10 (Image: SWPix.com)

“They’ve beaten Saints and if they’d have had their time again, they would have beaten Wigan,” Burgess said of Saturday’s opponents.

“They’ve had some pretty good performances, so they’re a good team that plays for their coach.

“Both centres are pretty lively, so we’ve got to be good to control them.

“We’ll do our job as usual. Everyone has a role to play in limiting what they’re doing.

“Marc Sneyd is just one part of their puzzle so certain people have their jobs to cover him, likewise for everyone else.

“It will be a case of everyone getting their job done and hopefully, that will take us towards the result we want.

“We’ve got to be aware of the threats they pose and the patterns they may have. They change things around pretty regularly, so it’s just concentration for us.

“Sneyd’s a great player – he’s leading the Man of Steel board so he’s doing something right – but we have trust in our systems and structures.

“It then becomes about execution and concentration for us but he puts the ball in good places, there’s no doubt about that.

“He makes them live contests so for us, it’s about being in the right place when that happens.”

Both sides come into the game off the back of tight and nervy Round Eight victories – The Wire fought back to edge out Leigh Leopards while Salford were 12-4 victors at winless London Broncos.

Burgess and his opposite number Paul Rowley will both no doubt be looking for improvements in performance on Saturday and for Warrington, Burgess picked out a few areas in which he wants to see growth.

“I thought we weren’t very clinical in some of our set finishes,” he said.

“We didn’t play to our strengths as much and we missed the game physically early on. Essentially, though, we managed to stay in it and get a win.

“I was proud of our defence at the end as we had to defend under a fair bit of fatigue in that last seven or eight minutes.

“We’ve had a pretty steady couple of days – the boys were pretty tired so it was important we gave them the chance to refresh.

“We’ll have a good look at Salford now and try and get a plan in place.”

Wire beat Leigh Leopards 16-14 last time out (Image: SWPix.com)

Generally, though, Burgess can afford to be pleased with what he is seeing from his Warrington side.

During pre-season, he affirmed he would have a clear picture about what his side could be capable of after 10 matches and now, they have reached that marker having played eight times in Super League and twice in the Challenge Cup.

So with his side having won eight of those 10 to leave them sitting fourth in Super League with a Challenge Cup semi-final on the horizon, how does he feel about where they sit?

“If someone had told me we’d be eight from 10, I’d have been pretty happy with that,” he said.

“I’m happy with the group and with the progress we’ve made, but we’ve got a long way to go yet.

“We’ve had some good performances, we’ve had some tough games, we’ve managed quite a few injuries and we’ve seen the emergence of some young players which is always exciting.

“I’m happy, but there’s a bit to go yet.”