George Williams: Warrington Wolves star and England captain grateful for freedom to dictate play

George Williams is delighted with the way he and team-mate Matt Dufty have been given the freedom to dictate play at Warrington Wolves by head coach Sam Burgess.

Warrington, who sit third in the table two points below Wigan Warriors and first-placed Hull KR, are still firmly in contention to finish top of the table and claim the League Leaders’ Shield which would guarantee them a home semi-final in the play-offs.

Since Warrington were beaten 18-8 by Wigan Warriors in the Challenge Cup final in June they have won six of their eight Super League games and Williams is pleased with the team’s form and his own.

“Hopefully I’m at my best but I think it’s probably the team I’m enjoying playing in, I think everyone’s doing the role,” Williams told Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast.

“Then me and Dufty, they want to try and create things so it makes us look good. I think the middles are playing the platform and we’re in good field positions so it’s an enjoyable team to play in at the minute.

“Previously, I’ve probably been locked in on the left side and there’s nowhere to defend on the right. I actually prefer having the ball on the left but now I play both sides.

“As long as we’re winning, we know the team is playing well and hopefully it continues.”

Warrington have made big improvements on last year when they just scraped into the play-offs but lost in the elimination round, and Williams has taken plenty of lessons from their 2023 season.

“Looking back it was awful but now I feel like I learnt a lot from it,” he added.

“We lost eight or nine games on the spin at one point which is unheard of from me, so I learnt about myself during that time about maintaining standards – still do the right thing, still try and lead when you’re feeling off.

“It was good for me and looking back now a lot of it is down to the environment that we have.”

Head coach Burgess ‘just gets it’

Last year, Sam Burgess was appointed as Warrington Wolves’ new head coach on a two-year contract, following Daryl Powell’s departure.

Burgess won numerous international honours for England in both rugby league and union and became an NRL champion with South Sydney Rabbitohs.

Prior to his Warrington role, Burgess had only been head coach of one team – Orara Valley Axemen – and was more well known for his assistant coaching role at South Sydney Rabbitohs since retiring as a player in 2019.

Williams credits Warrington’s success this season to Burgess’ appointment and revealed the two have a close relationship.

“Burgess has been huge. It helps that he’s only been out the game four years, but he’s such a great leader of men so when he says stuff people follow,” Williams said.

“The pre-game chats are good, even the meetings are good. He’ll give us a review and then goes into a motivational speech and we’re all ready to train. It’s good and the lads are on side.

“I think he understands players. He knows certain people need certain things.

“Dufty needs his tyres pumping up and I’ll say it openly, him and Daryl Powell probably didn’t get on, he was harsh on him when he did something wrong.

“Sam would put his arm around him, and as you’ve seen with the season he’s having, it’s working.

“We have conversations that aren’t about rugby. I’ve known him a good few years but we talk about other things.

“I lost my grandad last year and I could talk to him about it. The care is there and it wasn’t just saying things, he got into it.

“We had a half an hour conversation about it and I went home feeling great about myself because I vented a little bit and he just gets it.”

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