UPDATED WITH PICTURES: Wolves bow out after breathtaking battle
6:28pm Saturday 10th May 2008
St Helens 40 Warrington Wolves 34.
WARRINGTON Wolves pushed St Helens to the wire in a pulsating Challenge Cup fifth round tie at sun-drenched Knowsley Road today.
Wolves overcame numerous unsettling incidents to give Saints, Challenge Cup winners for the last two years, the fright of their lives.
Saints, who had capitalised on some good fortune to pull away with three tries in five minutes to lead 40-24 going into the final 10 minutes, were desperately scrambling in defence in the closing moments after Wolves had opened them up in an all-out final push to force extra time.
With the clock counting down its final seconds, Kevin Penny, who had earlier added to his collection of spectacular tries and also gifted one to Saints by coughing up possession near his own line, forced a pass in a bid to keep the movement alive.
But Sean Long pounced as the ball ran loose with the final hooter sounding on the next tackle.
The drama began before the starting whistle even blew.
Wolves, who welcomed the return of Simon Grix after a three-month injury but were missing Rob Parker with a rib injury as well as suspended Jon Clarke and the longer term Chris Bridge, Paul Wood and Steve Pickersgill, lost the services of right centre Martin Gleeson in the warm-up.
Gleeson, suffering the effects of an overnight virus and ending up on a drip in the dressing rooms, was replaced by Paul Johnson, who had been named on the bench.
Travelling reserve Chris Riley was drafted on to the bench and his services were needed at full back after six minutes with Stuart Reardon leaving the field with a ruptured Achilles' tendon.
Both Riley and Johnson also left the field with ligament injuries later in the game, leaving Wolves with Ben Harrison at centre and Simon Grix on the wing at one stage.
Wolves overcame those early setbacks to take an 8-0 lead courtesy of a converted birthday try from skipper Adrian Morley and an additional penalty goal from Chris Hicks.
Wolves' first mistake was a forward pass from Mark Gleeson in the 20th minute and Saints' response was to fire the ball wide for Willie Talau to cross despite an ankle-tap tackle from scrambling Lee Briers.
A high tackle from Johnson on Francis Meli was then punished with Paul Wellens sending Chris Flannery over from 30 metres and Long's second conversion handed Saints a 12-8 lead with 24 minutes gone.
The end-to-end flow of the game continued with Briers' grubber forcing six more tackles and Johnson sucking in both Lee Gilmour and Meli before flipping out a pass for Chris Hicks to walk over from 10 metres in the 30th minute.
Hicks converted from wide out to put Wolves back in front 14-12 but the lead was short-lived.
A disputed knock on from Michael Monaghan just inside his own half paved the way for Saints' next score.
The ball was swept from right to left for Meli to use his strength to beat Riley by the corner post but the forward final pass from Wellens had been missed by the officials.
Long's touchline conversion took St Helens back down the tunnel with an 18-14 advantage.
Four minutes into the second half Wolves were back on level terms.
Johnson accepted a long flighted pass from Briers and somehow managed to free his ball-carrying hand behind the tackler and produce a reverse-flick pass for Hicks to storm clear for his second try, although Hicks was unable to convert from the touchline.
Saints regained a four-point lead in the 51st minute after a penalty for holding down, stretching Wolves on the left with Penny leaving himself too much to do to prevent Ade Gardner crossing in the corner from a Leon Pryce feed.
Then came Penny's try of the season contender, all started with a Long chip kick to the foot of Wolves' posts.
Monaghan snapped up the ball and passed over his own try line to Hicks, who had now replaced the injured Riley at full back.
Hicks galloped into a two-man tackle and had the strength to offload to unmarked Penny on his outside.
Penny stepped inside covering Long and acclerated away from the chasers before deceiving Meli, who had flew across from the opposite wing, with a shimmy just before diving over in the corner.
Hicks' touchline conversion put Wolves 24-22 in the ascendancy with 23 minutes to go.
Controversially, referee Richard Silverwood blew for a scrum from a Saints knock on in the 61st minute after Ben Westwood had retrieved the loose ball and was about to send Briers over the whitewash.
A Briers kick forced six more tackles from a drop out as Wolves attempted to turn the screw.
Wolves complained of a ball steal from Leon Pryce as Johnson lost possession heading through a crowd of players near the try line.
But as Johnson stayed on the ground with a knee ligament injury, which led to him going off, Silverwood allowed Saints to come away with the ball and then penalised Wolves for offside - the one and only offside decision in the entire 80 minutes.
Wolves quickly got rotating prop Harrison on the field to temporarily fill the hole in the right centre position left by Johnson but ruthless Saints spotted that Wolves were reorganising and attacked that channel, coming up trumps with Pryce dropping off an inside pass for Talau to touch down his second score and put Saints in front 28-24 with 11 minutes to go.
That was the first of three tries in five minutes that proved to swing the game for Saints.
Penny appeared to be caught by surprise by Gardner's tackle from behind on his own 10m line after collecting a kick and he surrendered possession into the hands of Matt Gidley who fed Paul Clough for the try.
Then a loose and forward pass from Bryn Hargreaves was snaffled up by Lee Gilmour who changed directions twice to beat Hicks and Harrison on a 50m run to the line in the 74th minute.
Saints thought the game was won but Wolves still sensed they could score three times in the remaining minutes and almost pulled it off, especially after Silverwood spotted his first Saints forward pass of the game in the 77th minute.
Westwood charged over from a Briers pass and Hicks converted to reduce the deficit to 10 points with two minutes plus injury time still to play.
Then rotating hooker Grix, usually a loose forward who was filling in on the wing, weaved his way to the line from a deflected pass from Vinnie Anderson and, although Hicks missed his conversion, only six points separated the sides with two minutes of injury time left to play.
Monaghan spotted Saints were short of numbers on their right for the final attack of the game but Penny's route to the line was blocked and his attempted offload hit a Saints defender's leg and was gratefully swallowed up by Long, leaving Wolves heartbroken at Knowsley Road again.
Saints, who have not lost in their last 23 games against Wolves including two eight-point victories in Super League this year, had ended Wolves' Challenge Cup hopes for a second successive year.
Saints: Paul Wellens; Ade Gardner (1t), Matt Gidley, Willie Talau (2t), Francis Meli (1t); Leon Pryce, Sean Long (6g); Jason Cayless, Keiron Cunningham, James Graham, Lee Gilmour (1t), Chris Flannery (1t), Jon Wilkin. Subs used: James Roby, Bryn Hargreaves, Paul Clough (1t), Maurie Fa'asavalu.
Wolves: Stuart Reardon; Chris Hicks (2t, 5g), Paul Johnson, Matt King, Kevin Penny (1t); Lee Briers, Michael Monaghan; Adrian Morley (1t), Mark Gleeson, Paul Rauhihi, Louis Anderson, Ben Westwood (1t), Vinnie Anderson. Subs used: Chris Riley, Simon Grix (1t), Andy Bracek, Ben Harrison.