WARRINGTON WOLVES 50 WIDNES VIKINGS 12
JAMES GORDON, Halliwell Jones Stadium, Friday

WARRINGTON cantered to a comfortable win over local rivals Widnes with their young halfbacks showing promise.

Starting with a relatively strong side, the Wolves ran in five first-half tries with Josh Thewlis scoring a hat-trick.

Highly-rated half Ewan Irwin had plenty of involvement, and he was joined in the second half by Leon Hayes and Tommy Rhodes, who both crossed for tries of their own.

For Widnes, it was a worrying night out just a week away from their difficult Championship opener away at much-fancied London.

With Jordan Abdull making his first appearance in a Vikings shirt the visitors, cheered on by a sizeable following behind the posts, had a few early sights of the Warrington line, with his kicking game asking questions.

But a loose pass by him, intercepted by Thewlis, gave Warrington their first foray forward, which was eventually finished by Thewlis acrobatically in the corner.

Despite falling behind, Widnes continued to push forward without getting any points on the board, and they were hit with a sucker punch on the counter as nice footwork by Cai Taylor-Wray opened them up in the middle and he found Sam Stone in support to send Thewlis over for his second and 10-0 on 15 minutes.

From then on, it was largely one-way traffic as Warrington went back-to-back off a penalty, Danny Walker’s cut out pass helping Josh Smith put Thewlis in for his hat-trick.

A Walker pass went to ground on 29 minutes but it opened up for Toby King to shrug off a tackler and find Taylor-Wray who buzzed his way towards the posts, and kept it alive for Irwin to cross by the side of the posts.

By now Widnes were struggling to cope with Walker’s speed around the ruck, and his crash pass for Luke Thomas sent the Wales international over from close range to make it 28-0 at half-time.

Any anticipated relief for Widnes by the half-time change in personnel was dispelled inside three second-half minutes as Matty Fleming dropped Irwin’s high kick, and after multiple players tried and failed to gather the loose ball, Hayes kicked it on and pounced on it himself for a try.

A Hayes kick forced a repeat set and from that pressure, Ben Hartill side-stepped Fleming from dummy-half to make it 40-0 by the 50-minute mark.

Widnes broke their duck on 54 minutes as Deacon Connolly – a new signing from Warrington – did really well to catch a high Toby Hughes kick as he slipped in goal, and they also got the next try, Mike Butt just about getting the ball down in the corner.

But Warrington would have the final say, scoring two more tries in the last ten minutes.

First, Rhodes snared an interception off Joe Lyons to go 70 metres, and then with the final act of the match, Rhodes’ no-look pass found the angled run of Ewan Smith to go over by the posts and enable Hayes to bring up the half-century on the final whistle.

GAMESTAR: Josh Thewlis was a class above in the first half, seeing off Jordan Abdull’s kicking threat and scoring a clinical hat-trick.

GAMEBREAKER: Warrington scored whenever they got across the halfway line in the first half and Widnes were powerless to stop it.

MATCHFACTS

WOLVES
1 Cai Taylor-Wray
2 Josh Thewlis
26 Josh Smith
3 Toby King
27 Jake Thewlis
18 Ewan Irwin
7 Marc Sneyd
16 Liam Byrne
9 Danny Walker
22 Joe Philbin
34 Kelepi Tanginoa
12 Sam Stone
17 Jordy Crowther
Subs (all used)
4 Flynn Holden
5 Lachlan Webster
6 James Duffy
33 Tommy Rhodes
19 Leon Hayes
21 Luke Thomas
31 Ben Hartill
25 Max Wood
32 Ewan Smith
8 Luke Yates
20 Bear Williams
10 Isaac Holdsworth
13 Daniel Coop
15 Cameron Cooper
14 Bailey Lund

Tries: Josh Thewlis (6, 15, 19), Irwin (29), Thomas (34), Hayes (43), Hartill (49), Rhodes (70), E Smith (78)
Goals: Sneyd 4/5, Irwin 2/2, Hayes 1/2

VIKINGS
1 Matty Fleming
23 Nathan Connell
3 Jack Owens
4 Joe Edge
5 Ryan Ince
6 Joe Lyons
22 Jordan Abdull
8 Dan Murray
9 Jordan Johnstone
21 Jay Chapelhow
11 Sam Wilde
12 Max Roberts
13 Nick Gregson
Subs (all used)
2 Mike Butt
10 Liam Bent
14 Matty Fozard
15 Lewis Hall
20 Jack Bibby
25 Kieran Taylor
26 Toby Hughes
27 Deacon Connolly
28 Jack Houghton

Tries: Connolly (54), Butt (66)
Goals: Abdull 1/1, Edge 1/1

SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 10-0, 16-0, 22-0, 28-0; 34-0, 40-0, 40-6, 40-12, 44-12, 50-12

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Wolves: Josh Thewlis; Vikings: Jordan Abdull

Penalty count: 5-3
Half-time: 28-0
Referee: Jack Smith
Attendance: 4,083