Smith blasts 'slow' play following defeat of Broncos (From This Is Cheshire)

Warrington Wolves boss takes a shot at 'slow' pace of Super League matches

5:52pm Sunday 12th February 2012 in Sport By Christopher Terris Taylor

Smith was happy with his side's second half performance, but was scathing about the pace of play throughout the game

WOLVES boss Tony Smith has taken another shot at the ‘slow’ pace of play shown in Super League matches at the start of the new season.

Following his side’s comfortable 50-10 defeat of London Broncos at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, Smith admitted that his side’s shaky start was partly due to them struggling to adapt to the pace of the game.

“It is slow style that we seem to be playing this year and once we came to terms with that we controlled things better in the second half,” he said.

“All the games this weekend, they are just at a different pace to what we have been used to and we will take a bit of time to adjust to that sort of thing.”

“I made my second sub at the 59th minute and that was only because I was trying to prevent injuries.

“We could of gone without it.

“I was thinking about the poor blokes on the bench today, that they might not get a run out because it was that slow on the pitch.

“The boys I took off, I asked them if they could of stayed on for the 80 minutes and they reckon they could have.

“Injury wise we’ve had a good week and we haven’t had to replace anyone through injury or tiredness.”

As expected, Smith was glowing in his praise of Warrington’s excellent young backs, who impressed both individually and as a unit during the second-half demolition of Rob Powell’s Broncos.

Braces for Ryan Atkins, Chris Bridge, Joel Monaghan and Lee Briers only told some of the story, with Rhys Evans putting in a superb turn on the wing and Stefan Ratchford showing enough class at full back to give his coach selection headaches going forward.

“I thought there were some exciting young people to talk about out there,” said Smith.

“I thought Rhys Evans was terrific and Stefan Ratchford showed what versatility he has got and how many options I have got in the backs.

“Ryan Atkins was absolutely tremendous and though Bridge had his moments, he needs to hone in some of his skill as well.

“There were a few early signs that it was Joel’s first game back, but he ended up doing some really good things for us in the second half.”

Much of the spotlight building up to the game had been dominated by Lee Briers’ return to action following his rule breach and subsequent punishment, which saw him miss Wolves’ opening game of the season against Hull last week.

Smith was pleased to see Briers returning to the headlines for all the right reasons, with the playmaker involved in the build-up of several tries before capping off a typically consistent performance with two well-taken tries at the death.

“He did the best thing to repay his buddies for last week and that was to go out there, put his body on the line and perform,” said Smith.

“He showed his intent right from the word go, he took some tackles and even put in a few shots himself, so it was a great way for him to respond and he did some great things.”