Warrington Wolves boss Sam Burgess saw his side’s already slim play-off hopes all but ended by lowly Huddersfield Giants and admitted: ‘That’s as bad as it gets.’
Wire, who have endured a dreadful campaign despite reaching the Challenge Cup final, lost 23-10 at the Accu Stadium and remain in eighth spot on the Super League ladder.
They remain five competition points behind sixth-placed Hull FC, but there are just four rounds remaining now.
And after their defeat to the Giants, Burgess could scarcely hide his frustration, conceding that his side played as if their top-six hopes were already over – and damningly branding the display the worst of his near two-year reign.
‘It’s probably as poor as we have played since I’ve been in charge at the club’
Warrington led 10-6 at the break on Sunday, but a second half horror show – inspired by Giants youngster George Flanagan Jr – saw the hosts run out worthy victors.
Post-match, Burgess said: “It was an extremely disappointing second half – it’s probably as poor as we have played since I’ve been in charge at the club.
“We’ve got to ask a few questions of ourselves and I’ll be doing the same with myself because it just wasn’t good enough.
“The first half was a fair game, but in the second half we may as well have stayed in the changing room.
“It’s confusing because we had a great week in practice and we expect to transfer into our performance, but it just didn’t.
“That’s probably the most concerning part – the guys are just not turning up on gameday.”
Sunday’s reverse brought Warrington’s 13th league defeat of the season.
Asked why his players had failed to perform, Burgess replied: “That’s probably a question you should ask some of the players. We could all see that second half and some of it is just not good enough.
“I’ve asked the players, ‘what have we still got to play for?’, and we got the answer today.”
I’ve got to be careful what I say… the performance in the second half made it evident that we’re just not where we need to be as a group’
Warrington played in the second half like their season was already over, a point which Burgess accepted.
He revealed: “I just asked them that question. We looked like that and the other team looked like they were fighting for a finals (play-off) spot. It’s pretty disappointing.”
For a man of Burgess’ standing in the game, who as a player never took a backward step, it was difficult to stomach.
He continued: “I’ve got to be careful what I say. I don’t need to say any huge words about my group.
“The performance in the second half made it evident that we’re just not where we need to be as a group, which is disappointing.”
Asked if he saw a glimmer of hope in the play-offs, Burgess said: “No. Our performance today would suggest that we don’t deserve it anyway.”