Maguire expects response

Warriors boss wants team to respond after narrow Leeds defeat

Last updated: 12th September 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Maguire expects response

Maguire: Narrow defeat

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Wigan coach Michael Maguire believes his Warriors will bounce back from their heart-breaking play-off defeat by Leeds.

Rhinos skipper Kevin Sinfield secured a thrilling 27-26 victory in a qualifying play-off at the DW Stadium with a drop-goal three minutes from the end.

The defending champions are now within 80 minutes of a fourth successive Grand Final, while the table-topping Warriors need to try again next week against Hull KR.

Wigan missed a chance to snatch victory in the last seconds when winger Pat Richards was wide with an ambitious penalty attempt from 50 metres.

"It was painful," admitted Maguire. "It was really tough to take. We've a group in there who are very disappointed but we're very focused now on what needs to be done.

Script

"You can't always write the script you want. We need to re-group.

"I don't want to focus on what happened at the end. It's about what we did for the whole 80 minutes. We had opportunities but unfortunately didn't take them. It could have gone either way, it just fell the wrong way.

"We made a great start but we didn't help ourselves with the number of penalties we gave away."

Wigan suffered badly from the early loss of stand-off Paul Deacon, who is a major doubt for the Rovers match.

"He's strained his groin quite badly," said Maguire. "It's not looking great at the moment."

Wigan may also have a worry over the availability of England second rower Joel Tomkins, who escaped a sin-binning for kicking out at McGuire but could face a disciplinary hearing if the League decide to charge him over the offence.

"I'll have to have a look at that," added Maguire. "I don't think there was much in it.

"At the end of the day he's raised his leg and he got penalised for it. He's obviously hurting because it cost us. He's paid a fair price with the way the game's turned out."

McGuire blow

Leeds were also left with a major injury worry, with McGuire carried off on a stretcher with a knee injury just before the end.

"He's not too good," said Rhinos coach Brian McClennan. "He's got ligament damage in his knee.

"We need to find out what happened. He's been felled off the ball and we're unsure what's happened there. The camera didn't stay on him long enough.

"I thought the team showed a lot of fortitude and composure with the way we fought back. We didn't look at the scoreboard, we just concentrated on putting some plays on.

"I thought Greg Eastwood was very strong, creating breaks down the middle, and our little guys jumped on everything. It was a good game to watch."

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