You have skipped the navigation, tab for page content
Wayne Bennett watches on as his Broncos go down to Warrington.

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett has reaffirmed his support of the World Club Series concept saying that his side's 27-18 loss has shown him exactly what they need to work on ahead of their season-opener against the Sharks on March 2.

The Broncos were left stunned when Warrington opened the scoring after two minutes and had raced out to a 20-0 lead after just 18 minutes and despite scoring two unanswered tries in the second stanza couldn't rein in last year's Super League minor premiers.

Out-muscled by the Wolves forward pack, Brisbane will welcome back Adam Blair and Korbin Sims prior to their Round 1 clash with the Sharks and armed with the knowledge of what must improve, information Bennett says he wouldn't have had if they'd skipped the World Club Series and stayed in Australia.

"We came here when four other teams pulled out so we're extremely supportive of it," Bennett said when asked about the future of the World Club Series concept.

"It's great for us as a team and we played in a quality game of football. We wouldn't have got that in Australia in a trial match.

"We're going to go into Round 1 a lot better prepared and knowing what we've really got to work on.

"There are a few things that we got exposed with here tonight and we've got to go home and get them right and a trial match is not going to give you that.

"That's why I wanted to come here and I believe in what the game has a responsibility to. This is a part of it and [Warrington] have shown everybody what they can do here today."

No Super League team had registered a win in six previous World Series clashes over the previous two seasons and while he could appreciate the performance of England international Kevin Brown for Warrington, Bennett also admitted that his side's loss could help secure the future of the World Club Series.

"It's a great result for them. They deserved it, they played really good football," Bennett said.

"They'd have beaten a lot of Australian-based teams on their performance today. Full credit to them. It just shows that they are capable.

"We're disappointed but at the same time you realise that they are capable and they proved that tonight.

"We had a pretty good team here and we came here with good intent and trained pretty well so there's no reason why we couldn't have played better than what we did.

"They got us under pressure and didn't take the foot off our throat."

Coming through the contest injury free, the Broncos unveiled Josh McGuire as Corey Parker's successor in the No.13 jersey which Bennett says will be a long-term appointment despite the result.

"We'll persevere with him," Bennett said.

"If I pick a team on what we did tonight we probably wouldn't pick many of them.

"He's long term there and that will work OK for us."

 

Acknowledgement of Country

National Rugby League respects and honours the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.

Premier Partner

Media Partners

Major Partners

View All Partners