Smith make his point as Warrington get off the mark

LONDON: Tony Smith hailed his Warrington side after they finally got going in the Super League this season courtesy of a gutsy 22-22 draw with high-flying Hull FC. But he was still frustrated with referee Jack Smith after a couple of decisions seemingly cost his bottom-of-the-table side a muchneeded victory. Hull stormed into the lead through Albert Kelly’s try and they were 208 ahead at the break, with Warrington seemingly on course for their seventh defeat in as many Super League matches so far this season.

But former Gold Coast Titans star Matty Smith scored a fine hat-trick for Warrington before Kurt Gidley secured their first point of the season with a nerveless kick.

However, Australian-born coach Smith was annoyed his side did not go on and win the game when Mike Cooper’s try was disallowed and Daryl Clark had the ball stolen by two Hull players in offside positions. “It was an absolute penalty. But I’ve got to be happy about our second half,” said Smith, a former England coach who took British citizenship in 2008.

“There was a lot of improvement, in the second half in particular. In the first half we were still way too guilty of self-inflicted harm. “I thought Hull were a bit flat today and we let them off the hook in the first half-we gave them most of their points, either through penalties or intercepts,” said Smith. “I said we just needed to be pretty strong and basic today to get a decent result and I wasn’t far wrong.

“The boys are working hard and competing and they’ve got desire and unity. We’ve still got a few rough edges to knock off and, when we do that, we will be getting the two points and not the one.

Smith picked three of his players for special praise. “Matty Russell was back to some of his best and not just with his finishing because he was a handful with the ball,” said Smith.

“Benny Westwood played himself to a standstill and Ryan Atkins was enormous.”

HUDDERSFIELD HIDING

Elsewhere, Huddersfield coach Rick Stone was left nervously looking over his shoulder after the Giants were thumped 52-16 at league leaders Castleford.

Huddersfield have won just two of their eight games and sit 10th in the 12-team table after hat-tricks from veteran Australian Joel Monaghan and Luke Gale gave the Tigers victory.

“It was a good old-fashioned hiding,” former Fiji coach Stone said. “They gave us a lesson basically.”

Salford coach Ian Watson was left guarding against complacency after his side’s fourth win in five games, a 22-14 success against St Helens. Michael Dobson scored two tries as Salford rose to fourth in the table. “We won’t get carried away,” said Watson “The big thing for us is working hard and sticking to the process of getting where we want to be. We’ll take it week by week.” —AFP