Warrington Beat Wakefield To Extend Winning Start

59 Comments


Warrington Wolves (14) 27


Tries: Sipley, Hopoate, Smith, King Goals: Sneyd 5 Drop objective: Sneyd


Wakefield Trinity (2) 16


Tries: Jowitt, Myers, Pratt Goals: Jowitt 2


Warrington survived a strong Wakefield fightback in the second half to make it two wins from 2 in Super League.


The Wolves, who were coming off the back of a blank weekend since of Hull Kingston Rovers' participation worldwide Club Challenge, seemed to have taken a company grip on the video game in the first half.


Tries from Toafofoa Sipley and Albert Hopoate, in addition to the trusted kicking of Marc Sneyd, had them 14-2 up at the break.


Trinity, who chalked up their first win of the season at Huddersfield last week, returned well as Jake Trueman remarkably produced pursues Max Jowitt and Jayden Myers.


Wire responded as beginner Josh Smith crossed for his very first shot however Oliver Pratt's rating for Trinity set up a nervy ending, with the result settled by Sneyd's drop objective and Toby King's late shot.


Wire gave more evidence that they might make a fist of challenging for honours this season as Sneyd offered a kicking masterclass and they had the defensive resilience to hold company as Trinity came good.


Wakefield had actually won the previous three meetings of these 2, however they were quickly in trouble as Sneyd slotted over a penalty and then video referee Chris Kendall overturned an on-field decision of "no try" to offer Sipley 4 points.


A few minutes later, Hopoate supported Danny Walker's break to streak away for another shot for 14-0.


Wire seemed to have made a pricey mistake as they responded to strong Wakefield pressure right at the end of the half by devoting repeat offenses which saw Sipley sin-binned and Jowitt kick the resulting penalty to provide his side a toe-hold.


That ended up being a firmer platform early in the 2nd half as Trinity used the extra male, Trueman slinging a fine pass over the top for Jowitt to score in the corner.


Sipley's very first act on going back to the field was a ruck violation which resulted in Trueman creating an even much better looping cut-out pass and Myers completed to cut the result in simply 4 points.


That spurred Wire into action after a drop in tempo and Sneyd's boot took control as he broke the ball out to Smith, playing first-rate rugby for the first time, to score his first try, which Sneyd transformed and after that added a penalty to offer his side breathing time.


Pratt then got on completion of a great kick by Jack Sinfield to score in the corner and when Jowitt remarkably nailed the difficult conversion, the video game was back in the balance.


Wakefield seemed specific to score as Myers streaked for the corner but 20-year-old full-back Cai Taylor-Wray, who wowed the crowd with his attacking prowess against St Helens, produced a splendid tackle to bundle him into touch and keep the lead.


Sneyd dropped an objective and after that cracked another fragile kick to the corner for Smith to get and pass in mid-air for King to eliminate any doubt.


Six-try St Helens whip Catalans in Perpignan


'A truly top quality video game'


"It was a really top quality game. Both sides were at 90-something percent conclusion.


"They were physical and we had to ride out the first half however the game lost its way a bit in the 2nd half - [it was] not down to the players, it just got a bit stop-start.


"In the very first half we might have assaulted a little much better. There are areas we can look at where we can challenge a bit more and ask a couple of more concerns.


"The way the video game is going, it will take teams eight to 10 weeks to figure it out, and it's the exact same with us. Our persistence was proficient at times and we were 100% in the first half up until the unfortunate sin-binning."


Warrington Wolves: Taylor-Wray; Thewlis, King, Hopoate, Smith; Williams, Sneyd; Yates, Walker, Byrne, Stone, Harrison, Currie.


Replacements: Sipley, Crowther, Philbin, Tanginoa.


Wakefield Trinity: Jowitt; Pratt, Scott, Hall, Myers; Sinfield, Trueman; McMeeken, Smoothy, Hamlin-Uele, Nikotemo, Vagana, Tevaga.


Replacements: Storton, Pitts, Faatili, Smith.


Referee: Liam Rush