After a career of near-misses and heartaches at almost every turning, Ashton Sims’ best opportunity to secure an elusive first trophy seems to rest with Warrington’s class of 2016.
He knows the next few weeks will go a long way towards dictating that. Sims has lost NRL semi-finals with three different teams throughout his career, as well as two defeats in the last four of the World Cup with Fiji, in 2008 and 2013. Add to that a defeat in the semi-finals of last year’s Challenge Cup during his first season at Warrington, and it is easy to make a case for Sims being rugby league’s most unfortunate player.
But as the midway point of the season approaches, Sims and Warrington find themselves among a quartet of clubs at the top who already hold a six-point cushion over St Helens, the side below them in fifth. They are also only two points behind the league leaders, Hull FC, before an eagerly anticipated match between the two on Friday. With third-placed Catalans and a Challenge Cup quarter-final with Widnes their following two fixtures, Sims is acutely aware of the importance of the next few weeks for Warrington’s season.
“We’re not getting too far ahead of ourselves; we know we’ve got the cup game against Widnes on the horizon but we’ve got two huge league games against Hull and Catalans coming up first,” Sims said. “It’s a huge few weeks for our season. Like anyone, you want to test yourself against the best and Hull and Catalans are two of the form teams in the competition. Our primary focus is Hull first, though, as they’ve been in great form of late.”
Sims will return to action on Friday after missing his first match of 2016 owing to suspension – and despite watching the Wolves establish that six-point buffer on the rest by beating St Helens 26-4, the prop is adamant a step up in class is required against a Hull side who have won 12 of their last 13 games in all competitions.
“It was a huge win in the context of our season,” Sims said. “It’s going to jump up in competitiveness this week, though, as we’ve got first place coming to our place – but we can’t wait for it. They’ve got a good forward pack and great halves, they’re an all-round fantastic side. We won’t be pinpointing one guy in particular, it’s the full 17 we’ve got to pay respect and credit to – but we’ve got plenty of improvement left in us ourselves, so we’re confident.”
Sims openly admits the despair of six semi-final defeats throughout his career still motivates him, but halfway through what has become a three-year stay with Warrington, after an extension to the two-year deal he initially signed, the 31-year-old’s focus is shifting from his personal desires to helping usher in a new era at a club that has quickly captured his heart.
“What’s happened in the past has happened,” Sims said. “I’m in a new era here but yes, it’s hard not to see all those semi-final losses in the past. I had one with Warrington last year in the Challenge Cup too and it spurs you on to go one better and get over the line. We want to be the guys who lift the trophies now – and the men who played before us in the Warrington shirt and served the club with such distinction, we want them to be proud of what we’re doing.”
It is four years since Warrington’s last trophy, the 2012 Challenge Cup – and you have to go back to 1955 to find the last time they were champions of England. Victory on Friday will not end that drought but it will undoubtedly affirm the belief that together, the Wolves and Sims can achieve something which, for the forward at least, would be unprecedented.
