GEORGE Williams has issued an apology to the Warrington Wolves supporters who watched them sink to a humbling Las Vegas loss.
Amid much hype and build-up, The Wire faltered badly to sink to their heaviest defeat of Sam Burgess’ tenure as head coach at Allegiant Stadium.
Defending Super League champions Wigan Warriors ran eight tries past their neighbours – the first seven of which were unanswered as they raced into a 42-0 lead with still a full quarter of the game left.
Warrington did at least add some respectability to the scoreline, but the game had long since gone as they completed a 48-24 victory.
Around 6,000 Wire fans were believed to have been present, with the vast majority having spent thousands of pounds to fly to the US and attend only to be greeted by a horror show from their heroes.
And Williams admits he and his teammates let their supporters down badly – especially those who had travelled.
“I’m just sorry for the performance,” he said.
“It’s the first time in a long time we’ve been put on like that and it wasn’t good out there.
“Wigan were really good, but we were way off defensively. To concede 48 is not good enough and it’s something we’ll review.
“It’s been a great week, but today is disappointing and we didn’t perform when it mattered.”
It was Super League’s first involvement in the NRL’s Rugby League Las Vegas concept and post-match, it was confirmed there will be another English fixture at next year’s event.
Williams maintained it had been a great week for the northern hemisphere game, despite his disappointment at his players not doing themselves justice with their performance on the night.
“It’s been brilliant – you want to be involved in the biggest occasions and as players, you can’t really beat that,” he said.
“That being said, we’ll have a sour taste in our mouth after that with how we played but it’s been a good week for rugby league in general.
“We’ve got some lads hurting in there – 17 lads that are burning inside that we’ve not played well.
“We’ll dust ourselves down and enjoy each other’s company tonight.”
