I was very pleased with the performance at Halifax last Sunday.

It was enough to get us through to the semi-final and that is what we set out to do.

I am apprehensive about the semi-final against Warrington - it will be a tough game but all the squad are looking forward to it.

It is what the game is all about, but the Halifax game, wow, that was great! To be able to play below your best and still win comfortably, that's tremendous.

We had had a tough couple of weeks and came down from a big emotional high from the St Helens game.

We had to fight, I'll give Halifax credit for that. I thought that we would have thrashed them by 40 points.

They really bent their backs and got stuck in to the job and they played to their strength.

They roughed the game up and slowed it down to try and upset us but we kept out of it and we have a fully fit squad for the Warrington game on Sunday.

I don't think we were complacent. We perhaps didn't play as well as we can, but that's rugby league and we have to get on with it!

A lot has been made of the fact Robbie had a good game and won the man of the match, but I am happy with the way he plays week in and week out.

He's a great player and he did a couple of brilliant things for us in attack. His defence, as ever, was superb.

But he does that all the time and gives a lot to the team.

The Warrington cup tie will be very tough. As I said, I am a little apprehensive but really looking forward to it.

With a combination of stars and top young talent on both sides it will be a titanic battle.

I am not too bothered that we will be playing them two weeks in a row.

The league game is very important because, although it is only the second round of the competition, those points will be much needed at the end of the season.

We will play them exactly the same way in the cup game. We will come up with a game plan and we will get stuck in to their weaknesses.

Allan Langer and Tawera Nikau are two players who I admire a lot. Tawera has always been a great servant for his club and his country. He has the ability to be able to get away the most impossible passes. We will have to watch him and try and mark up on him.

Allan Langer is a great player. I don't know if he can find his feet in this country but I know we are going to try and pull the rug from under him!

A team can't rely on two players and to be fair they haven't this season.

We have got some players who are playing out of their skin and we have to make sure that we get all our individuals playing as a team and try and disrupt their team plan.

I was very shocked at Wigan's exit from the Challenge Cup.

I only saw the last ten minutes or so but it was obvious that they weren't playing with much enthusiasm.

Hull, on the other hand, played with bags of the stuff. Yes, I was shocked, but if you don't do the hard work you don't get the rewards.

Going into the league clash with Warrington this weekend it's pretty hard to not think about the Challenge Cup tie.

The players who haven't experienced it before, like Brad Mackay and Justin Brooker, have heard all about it from the those who have been there.

We know what the day can mean to people but we are trying to keep level-headed and focused on this week's game.

We are hoping for a crowd of 20,000 for the match. We have pushed the boat out with the entertainment and I am sure that we can get that crowd.

Warrington have some great players and our crowd appreciate quality. They have been magnificent for the past four years.

They certainly intimidate the opposition and we need them to do it on Sunday. We need a big crowd because if they can roar us to a win, as they did at Halifax and St Helens, then they can give us a big lift for the following week.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.