WARRINGTON WOLVES 14 CARDIFF DEMONS 42
LORRAINE MARSDEN, Victoria Park, Sunday
WARRINGTON WOLVES will have to beat four-time champions St Helens on Saturday if they are to progress to the quarter-finals, after losing their opening game against Championship side Cardiff Demons.
The Welsh outfit were the strongest from the start and opened the scoring through fullback Leanne Burnell after just six minutes, with Amberley Ruck adding the conversion.
The signs looked positive for the hosts when they hit back through Sydney Alderman-Smith five minutes later to reduce the arrears, but they couldn’t find any more points in the opening half.
Instead it was Cardiff who added to their total with a Zoe Heeley hat-trick and a single score from Lora Roberts, Ruck adding one more conversion with the boot to put the Demons 24-4 up.
The second half was only two minutes old when Cardiff further extended their lead through Olivia Williams, followed moments later when Charlie Mundy crossed, Ruck converting the second of these scores.
Nicole Barnett pulled one back for Warrington on 55 minutes, but they could not get themselves back into the contest and Frances Layton scored a brace, the first coming on the hour mark and the second with four minutes remaining, to put the visitors out of sight.
Wolves captain Dani Bound crossed for a late consolation try for the hosts, but it was too little, too late for Ged Ginty’s side.
WOLVES: 17 Albany-D Coates, 2 Kerrie Evans, 3 Olivia Argent, 19 Nicole Barnett, 5 Sydney Alderman-Smith, 6 Charlie Magraw, 7 Emma Knowles, 11 Emily Downs, 9 Dani Bound, 10 Megan Condliffe, 12 Amber Harmon, 15 Helena Turner, 13 Millie Bell. Subs (all used): 14 Abbie Singleton, 24 Jess Panayiotou, 8 Ellie Dooney, 22 Chelsea Newton
Tries: Alderman-Smith (11), Barnett (55), Bound (79); Goals: Knowles 1/3
DEMONS: 1 Leanne Burnell, 5 Zoe Heeley, 20 Lora Roberts, 16 Olivia Williams, 19 Frances Layton, 6 Amberley Ruck, 14 Meg Whittaker, 8 Sara Jones, 9 Jasmine Gibbons, 10 Ffion Jenkins, 11 Bridget Jones, 12 Charlie Mundy, 13 Ffion Jones. Subs (all used): 22 Amy Price, 26 Sue Neuman, 23 Hannah Jones, 24 Shaunni Davies
Tries: Burnell (6), Heeley (18, 21, 35), Roberts (26), Williams (42), Mundy (48), Layton (61, 76); Goals: Ruck 3/9
SCORING SEQUENCE: 0-6, 4-6, 4-10, 4-16, 4-20, 4-24; 4-28, 4-34, 8-34, 8-38, 8-42, 14-42
Half-time: 4-24
