Smith: Look after ourselves

[josie andrews]

Harry Smith gave his thoughts to the press on Monday afternoon as the Warriors prepare to face Hull KR on Thursday night.

Smith: “It’s about playing our game and if we start well, get our plays on at the right time and don’t force it like we were trying to do against Leeds, we can be successful and challenge them.”

See the full interview with Harry Smith on Wigan TV HERE. Not a subscriber? Join today from £5.99 per month.

Harry Smith said Wigan have to ‘look after ourselves’ as they prepare to head into the final few games of the regular season ahead of the Play-Offs.

Speaking on the season so far, he said: “Yeah I’m happy with how the season has gone so far, I’ve been able to put in a good few performances back-to-back which is something that I wanted to build on from last year. Obviously, I want to keep doing that for the team and keep getting results that we need at this time of the year.

“We’ve been working on just making sure my involvements are good every time I touch the ball and making sure I don’t waste plays. If I build my game and control the team, things will come off the back of that so it’s about starting the game well and then things will transpire from there.”

He added: “I think when I missed the first few games of the season with Tommy [Leuluai] and Cade [Cust] playing it gave me a hunger and desire to work even harder, get better, get my spot in the team and take the chance when I got it and I managed to do that. I know that when anyone comes back in the team, we have a lot of options so I know that I need to keep performing to hold my spot when players start coming back from injury.”

Smith reflected on last week’s result and how that helps them to prepare for this week’s game against Hull KR: “It was a disappointing one for us [against Leeds], probably the most disappointing game this year. I feel they started the game a lot better than us and we were just trying to catch them, when you do that errors start, you’re chancing your arm too much and it all just came into one. We didn’t start the game well enough or match their intensity.

“We’ve spoken about the start and not missing the jump. It’s about playing our game and if we start well, get our plays on at the right time and don’t force it like we were trying to do against Leeds, we can be successful and challenge them.”

Questioned on whether the Warriors can hit the top spot before the end of the season, Smith said: “It’s just on us to look after ourselves and keep performing well. The results and the table will take care of itself, we’re not looking to catch anyone we’re just looking on a weekly basis to win our games and then we’ll know we’re in the right spot at the end of the year to challenge for the title, hopefully.”

Smith finished by talking about the team’s ability to bounce back after a loss: “We didn’t want to dwell on it, but we definitely didn’t brush it under the carpet that we weren’t good enough and didn’t play well enough to win.

“I think we’ve done that well this year. With the few losses that we’ve had, I feel we’ve gone about it the right way, not all screaming, shouting and pointing fingers but coming together and finding a ground of what went wrong and how we can change it for the week after. Doing those things right the week after has always helped us get the win.”

See the Warriors in action at the DW Stadium this Thursday as we take on Hull KR in Round 21 of Betred Super League. All ticket information, including pricing and how to buy can be found HERE.

https://wiganwarriors.com/blog/2022/07/ ... ourselves/