Warrington Wolves return to winning ways after a professional 30-6 win over Wakefield Trinity at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. Here’s what happened.
MATCH DETAILS
The game got off to a fast start, as after a Pauli Pauli break, Ryan Hampshire was there for the offload and scored near the sticks. Danny Brough with the extras.
However, the Wolves then got back into the match after Ben Currie was the quickest to a Dec Patton grubber kick. Patton added the extras.
Minutes later, the Wire scored again this time through Josh Charnley on his 200th Super League appearance. After making a break, Charnley passed inside and after a kick into the in-goal, the try-scorer dived on the ball.ย Patton failed to add the extras.
Although Wakefield tried to break through the Wolves defence, Warrington actually made it a two score lead four minutes before the break with the try coming through Mike Cooper, who was able to force his way through the Trinity line. Patton added the extras.
The second half began in a similar fashion to the first although it was Warrington to score this time. The try came through the leading try scorer Blake Austin, who was able to find a way through the Wakefield defence and scored near the posts. Patton added the extras.
For a large part of the second half, both sides had chances with the game turning into a battle of the forwards. However with 15 minutes to go, Daryl Clark made a break through the middle but was tackled close to the line. A few tackles later, Trinity gave a penalty away close to the sticks. Warrington elected to take the two and put the game out of reach.
The final points of the game came in the last minute of the game after some fantastic passing down the line. Jack Johnson was able to finish in the corner and Patton with the extras.
Up next for Warrington is a tough task at home against the league leaders St Helens, who beat Leeds 36-10 this weekend. For Wakefield, it’s a home match against Huddersfield, which could have huge implications on the relegation battle, with both sides in this match being a few points off the bottom three.
FOUR POINTERS
Return of Daryl Clark
Daryl Clark returned to the Wolves side after sitting out last week. However, the former Man of Steel showed why he is key for Warrington. Most of the season he has been on fire and is just outside of the top 10 on the Man of Steel rankings for this season with 12 points.ย If his form continues, it could end the 64 years of hurt for the Wire on October 13th in the Grand Final.
Steve Price: “A lot of positive steps”
Steve Price believes that his side had a better attitude than last week after their professional win. Price went on in his post-match press conference: “I thought our attack looked much better tonight and to score 30 points and to keep them scoreless for 79 minutes was very pleasing. We have a team who pride themselves on strong performances. The win tonight was a fitting reward for the hard work the boys have been doing in training. We overpowered them in the end and could have run away with it and been a lot more convincing so we are heading in the right direction.”
Chris Chester: “We got beat by a better side”
Chris Chester said that his side put in “a lot of effort” into the match. Chester did say post-match: “It was a good first 40 minutes. We started the game really well with real intent and got off to a really good start. I don’t think the score at half-time reflected the effort of the players; there was plenty of effort out there tonight. If we can bottle that first 40 minutes then we’ll give ourselves a good chance of climbing that table.”
Relegation dogfight
After Wakefield lost their sixth match in a row, they currently sit in eighth and are only four points clear of the team currently sat in twelfth, Hull KR. With just 10 points between third and twelfth, the battle to stay in Super League could be the tightest in years, especially after some of the shock results in the last few weeks.
THE RESULT
Warrington 30
Tries: Goodwin, Charnley, Copper, Austin, Johnson
Goals: Patton (5)
Drop Goals: n/a
Wakefield 6
Tries: Hampshire
Goals: Brough
Drop Goals: n/a
SQUADS
Warrington: Mamo, Johnson, Goodwin, King, Charnley, Austin, Patton, Hill, D. Clark, Cooper, Currie, Hughes, Philbin.
Interchanges: J. Clark, Murdoch-Masila, Akauola, Davies.
Wakefield: Hampshire, Jones-Bishop, Lyne, Croft, Caton-Brown, Miller, Brough, England, Crowther, Tanginoa, Pauli, Fifita, King.
Interchanges: Gwaze, Kopczak, Hirst, Wood.
