WAKEFIELD TRINITY 40 WARRINGTON WOLVES 10
JAMES GORDON, DIY Kitchens Stadium, Sunday
WAKEFIELD continued their recent hoodoo over Warrington with a dominant second-half display to make it seven wins in their last eight games against the Wolves.
Although Daryl Powell’s former club threatened a comeback from 18-0 down with two quickfire tries shortly before half time, they never really looked likely to recover in the second half from the moment Arron Lindop dropped the kick-off.
The opening ten minutes of the match belonged to Caius Faatili. After his early faux pas in making a rushed high kick without having realised the referee had waved for a fresh set of six 20 metres out from the Wolves line following a hand-in on a kick, he took on Liam Hood’s pass from close range to crash over for the game’s opening try on four minutes.
If that was typical of him, his second was as a support runner to take Josh Griffin’s pass around under the posts on nine minutes after a towering Mason Lino kick was grabbed by Tom Johnstone ahead of the Warrington defence, and he offloaded inside to keep the ball alive.
Warrington hadn’t seen any ball in the Wakefield half and they squandered their first real opportunity to look at the line when Rodrick Tai knocked on on the first tackle after a set restart, before Jake Thewlis was then tackled into touch and Paul Vaughan offloaded straight to Jay Pitts early in the count.
Wakefield ventured forward again on 26 minutes to score their third try, Griffin running on to Lino’s short pass to go over untouched for 18-0.
Warrington needed a score before the break to give them hope and it came seven minutes from time when runners on the left opened things up for Marc Sneyd to find Lindop with a long pass.
They made it a smart double when from the kick-off, early in the tackle account, Sneyd went down a short left-side to send Lindop tip-toeing up the left touchline to pass it back to Sneyd for Connor Wrench, making his first appearance in ten months, to finish off a 70-metre score that would have got them back within six points, but Sneyd hit the post with the conversion attempt.
Lindop’s error from the kick-off invited Wakefield in for some early field position at the start of the second half and it took them less than three minutes to convert it into points, with Corey Hall running on to a Lino short ball to touch down.
Warrington did have a couple of looks at the Wakefield line without really threatening, but when Jowitt’s long ball put Tom Johnstone in at the left corner to restore the 18-point advantage, it was game over.
A break through the middle by Pitts and Lino then set up the field position for a sixth try, with Matthieu Cozza’s offload presenting Griffin with his second.
By now it was clear Powell’s 50th game in charge of Wakefield would end in a 42nd victory, and Pratt was the next on the scoresheet, taking Cozza’s pass to the line after Dufty had dropped Lino’s kick.
GAMESTAR: Mason Lino ran the show for Wakefield and his kicking game caused Warrington problems.
GAMEBREAKER: Tom Johnstone’s try restored Wakefield’s 18-point advantage with 20 minutes to go and they were never in danger of blowing that.
HIGHLIGHT REEL: Connor Wrench marking his long-awaited return for Warrington by finishing a long-range try.
ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Mason Lino (Wakefield)
2 pts Jay Pitts (Wakefield)
1 pt Caius Faatili (Wakefield)
MATCHFACTS
TRINITY
23 Josh Rourke
2 Lachlan Walmsley
4 Corey Hall
19 Oliver Pratt
5 Tom Johnstone
1 Max Jowitt
20 Mason Lino
8 Mike McMeeken
9 Liam Hood
31 Caius Faatili
25 Jack Croft
12 Josh Griffin
13 Jay Pitts
Subs (all used)
3 Cam Scott
18 Isaiah Vagana
21 Mathieu Cozza
28 Harvey Smith
18th man (not used)
11 Seth Nikotemo
Also in 21-man squad
6 Jake Trueman
24 Matty Russell
30 Jayden Myers
Tries: Faatili (4, 9), Griffin (26, 63), Hall (43), Johnstone (56), Pratt (68)
Goals: Jowitt 6/7
WOLVES
1 Matt Dufty
28 Jake Thewlis
20 Connor Wrench
4 Rodrick Tai
33 Arron Lindop
19 Stefan Ratchford
35 Marc Sneyd
13 Luke Yates
14 Sam Powell
10 Paul Vaughan
21 Adam Holroyd
26 Dan Russell
11 Ben Currie
Subs (all used)
8 James Harrison
15 Joe Philbin
17 Jordy Crowther
37 Zack Gardner (D)
18th man (not used)
18 Oli Leyland
Also in 21-man squad
3 Toby King
12 Lachlan Fitzgibbon
24 Max Wood
Tries: Lindop (34), Wrench (36)
Goals: Sneyd 1/2
SCORING SEQUENCE: 6-0, 12-0, 18-0, 18-6, 18-10; 24-10, 28-10, 34-10, 40-10
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Trinity: Mason Lino; Wolves: James Harrison
Penalty count: 5-4
Half-time: 18-10
Referee: Liam Rush
Attendance: 6,629
