Liverpool St Helens  46
Warrington 26

INCESSANT rain, gale-force winds and arguably the worst Warrington performance of the season added up to a thoroughly miserable afternoon for Warrington at Liverpool St Helens on Saturday.

The injury-hit Warrington side could find no answer to the dominant LSH pack or the incisiveness of the home side’s centre pairing, going behind early to a wind-assisted penalty from 40 yards and struggling to find their footing in the match.

They quickly replied when a clever feint from Zak Lythgoe saw the Warrington forwards set up a ruck in the LSH 22, which allowed Pat Roberts to drift over for a try he converted himself.

Unfortunately for Warrington their defence was not up to scratch against a Liverpool attack on the top of their game, with one of their centre pairing rampaging through to give his side a lead they would never relinquish.

Coach Andy Roberts was in no doubt where the game was lost.

“Obviously, the weather conditions were an important factor and LSH adapted better than we did,” he said.

“We really have to sharpen up on our tackling.”

Three more LSH tries, often against ineffectual defence, saw the home side close down the game with a half time lead of 29-7.

The second half began as the first half had finished with LSH exposing Warrington’s defensive frailties to add a further seven points to their total.

Despite struggling defensively, the visitors did at least find some joy in attack thanks to quickfire tries from Christain White and Roberts, who also added a conversion. Any faint hopes of a Warrington comeback, however, were short-lived.

Liverpool took advantage of a sloppy tap-back at a line-out and strolled over, though Warrington did manage to grab a valuable bonus point through Tom Wood before LSH’s star centre scored the final try of a day to forget.