Jimmy applauds expansive play

2:00am Friday 18th July 2008

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JIMMY Lowes will continue to encourage his Warrington Wolves side to play expansive rugby despite warning that they need to be less wasteful in possession.

Wolves were the reluctant leaders of the Super League error charts ahead of Friday’s 32-28 home win against Bradford, with 262 handling errors in 20 league matches.

Paul Cullen made it clear when he appeared on Sky television to commentate on the game – his first return to The Halliwell Jones Stadium for a match since his departure seven weeks earlier – that he felt handling errors have been the key reason for Wolves’ defensive problems rather than any structural issues, making a staunch defence of the attacking philosophy he instilled at the club.

Lowes concurred by suggesting that his side needed to ‘smarten up’ in possession after the Bradford win, which saw Wolves play some enthralling rugby but also squander several try-scoring opportunities.

But the Wolves boss, who was pleased on the whole with the Bradford display and remains happy that performances are moving in the right direction, is keen not to stifle his players’ creative instincts.

“You’ve got to let them go for it,” said Lowes, who saw Wolves climb to fourth after his fifth win in six games.

“It’s not a case of getting too carried away, it’s sometimes just one extra pass. I want them to play and I want them to have fun playing and try stuff.

“It’s just that final execution a couple of times, if we’d have just pulled it in instead of offloading against Bradford, we probably would have scored from the next play.

“But that’s part of everyone’s learning. It’s always difficult to find the balance because, as I did, the lads all get excited when they’re playing and things are happening and offloads are coming off.

“But that’s what makes okay players become good players and good players become great players - making good decisions at the right time.

“That will help our defensive record as well because a little bit less defence and less tackling obviously gives you more energy, which ups your quality with and without the ball.

“But when you try to do stuff, you are going to make handling errors.

“As long as we’re aware of that, which we are, and on the back of that we’re going to have to do some defending, then let’s have a go.”

Wolves are again likely to name an unchanged team when they travel to Huddersfield on Saturday, kick-off 6pm.

Giants currently sit 11th in Super League but have won their last three home matches and gave Wolves an almighty fright at Millennium Magic when they went 22-6 up before losing 36-34.

“That’s still fresh in the memory,” said Lowes.

“They’re actually playing okay. We know they can fly out of the blocks, they’ve got some good players and are well-organised. It’s just not quite happening for them at the moment.

“If we go there and we’re over-confident or disrespectful towards them, we’ll get a good old kick up the backside.”