Are you looking forward to having another weekend off?

No. Not really.

Everyone would much rather be playing, particularly as this is our second weekend off in the past three weeks.

But what we have to do is make sure we use this time wisely.

After this weekend, we’ve got three vitally important Super League fixtures to play before we head into the play-offs.

We’re at Warrington next Thursday and then finish with home games against Hull and St Helens, and we’re obviously aiming to win all three so we can finish as high up the table as possible and take some strong form into that play-off series.

And we know how important it is to get our preparation right. If we do that then we know we’ll give ourselves an excellent chance.

How much of an improvement are you looking for from the way you played to beat Widnes 28-14 at the weekend?

We’re looking for a big improvement across the board – and that’s vital if we want to be successful in the play-offs.

There were a number of things that really disappointed me about that game, starting with the way the referee allowed Widnes to slow the game down at the ruck.

To be honest, it was that slow that at one point I was tempted to get back onto the field to play myself!

But what made it even more frustrating was how we allowed this to dictate the way we played, which wasn’t good at all. It meant we went away from what we were trying to do.

There were certainly times when it looked as if the players thought they could score off every play, particularly in the first half.

That was something we spoke about at half-time.

We talked about the need to stay patient, trade sets and bide your time, because if you do that then the opportunities will come, and that’s what happened in the last five minutes.

We got set after set after set, and ended up scoring a couple of late tries off the back of it.

Did you think the highlight of the game was the try on the stroke of half-time when Danny Brough kicked from deep, Jodie Broughton won the race for the ball and kicked ahead for Joe Wardle to touch down?

It was a pretty decent effort, wasn’t it?

It was initially great vision from Broughy to kick from deep and it was good to see Jodie get in the clear and show his pace, He did really well in that regard, because the outside Widnes backs aren’t slow, far from it.

No-one has ever questioned Jodie’s pace, he just needs to back himself a bit more when he’s presented with opportunities to score.

That try for Joe Wardle helped him score for a sixth successive game, while Jermaine McGillvary has now scored in four on the trot. That’s quite an achievement, isn’t it?

It’s not too bad at all.

I think a statistic like that underlines the fact we’re a team that likes to throw the ball around, and it’s these blokes on the wings, centres and back-rowers who tend to take full advantage.

But I believe everyone’s contributing, not just the tryscorers, and doing their jobs well.

We’ve just got to make sure everyone keeps doing that, and doing it even more.

How tough was it to leave out young Jake Connor for the Widnes game, particularly as his form over the past few months has been so good?

It was a tough call.

Jake’s a quality player and I think he’s now played around half-a-dozen first-grade games this year.

You’ve got to remember he’s still only 19, and the aim is to build on that number between now and the end of next year. We have to make sure he’s ready to step up on a more regular basis when we know he’s ready.

But I’ve certainly no issue in playing Jake, and it’s the same with Kruise Leeming, although the circumstances for him not featuring on Sunday were totally different.

Kruise wasn’t in the 19-man squad for disciplinary reasons, because he turned up late for training, just like Ukuma Ta’ai earlier in the year.

That’s why Kruise played in the Under 19s on the Saturday.

Are you planning on going to Wembley for Saturday’s Challenge Cup final, particularly as it’s an all-Yorkshire final?

No.

To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me whether it’s two Yorkshire teams in the final or not.

Huddersfield Giants aren’t involved, so I’m not really interested at all.