SAM Burgess hailed the character his Warrington Wolves showed to come through a tough encounter against Leigh Leopards victorious.

The Wire were far from their best against a physical and motivated Leopards side but were able to retrieve an eight-point deficit inside the final quarter of the game to run out 16-14 winners.

Matty Nicholson’s try with eight minutes remaining proved to be the winner – George Williams and Matt Dufty combined to release Josh Thewlis, who cut in from the right wing to break and find the back rower in support – as the hosts withstood a late barrage to seal the win.

Burgess admitted he was “worried” their efforts in beating St Helens six days prior to the game in the Challenge Cup may end up catching up with them and admitted his players looked “pretty tired” for large spells.

However, he spoke highly again of the effort and desire they showed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

“I’m pleased with the win as it was a tough game,” he said.

“We looked pretty tired and flat early, so I’m really happy for the team for getting the win.

“You could probably see in the Leeds-Huddersfield game last night that they had had a big game in Catalans and it was pretty similar with us today.

“We had our moments but we weren’t quite ourselves, so there were some great efforts and individual performances to get the job done.

“There was a lot of effort out there – they don’t mean to be tired and not do their job as well as they did last week, but its hard to turn up and physically be ready every week.

“There’s always going to be little dips and I was worried about that today, but I was really proud of their character.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am with their effort. We’re red-lining every week so to find that play at the end was fantastic.

“Our effort in defence then in the last eight or nine minutes was good.”

Matt Dufty’s try had set up a comeback after Ricky Leutele’s touchdown early in the second half had put Leigh in command of proceedings.

Ben McNamara and Josh Charnley scored either side of Lachlan Fitzgibbon’s first Warrington try to put the visitors ahead at the break and while Wire only led for just over a quarter of the game, it was them who were in front when it mattered.

“It was a tough game and Leigh are a great side – they challenged us all game and got plenty of offloads on us,” Burgess said.

“I’m figuring out my team and I feel like I’ve got a good idea of who they are, and so do they more importantly. We’re starting to understand that now.

“We’re never going to wave the white flag or roll over – our pre-season was designed not to let us do that and the team are grasping that.

“The mentality is driven by me, but they’re the guys on the field.

“It’s them that are caring about each other, the result, the town and what it means to wear the shirt. I can’t take too much credit for that.”

Fitzgibbon won the race to touch down Leon Hayes’ grubber kick and was also pivotal in Dufty’s try, breaking the line before dumping an offload for the full-back to touch down.

His display saw him named player of the match and Burgess was keen to praise the giant back-rower.

“He’s such an experienced player and was great in the NRL last year – he was one of the most devastating back-rowers,” he said.

“We had a drier pitch today so it was like playing in Australia today, which he enjoyed.

“He’s been such a great recruit for us – he’s got a calm mind and he’s a smart player.

“He knows where the space is going to be, he competes hard and he’s a great voice for the team.

“He’s been trying to score for the last eight weeks so he’ll be happy he’s finally got one.”