WARRINGTON Wolves take an 18-point lead into the break after having to be patient to break down a resilient Hull KR defence at the KC Lightstream Stadium.

Wolves broke the deadlock through Gene Ormsby’s try after a frustrating first half an hour before Stefan Ratchford and Joel Monaghan added scores in quick succession.

Mick Weyman, who helped himself to two tries the last time these sides met, forced his way over the Wolves line after Hull had won possession from Bridge’s fumble, but the powerful prop was well held up by a Warrington defence led by Ben Evans in the second minute.

Bridge’s kick rebounded off Jamie Langley on 10 minutes but Matty Russell gathered and set Micky Higham free with the hooker feeding Joel Monaghan, who was stopped 15 metres short.

Bridge picked up from dummy half and weaved his way towards the line, but from Wolves’ play-the-ball the pass went loose with Ben Currie and Monaghan looking to collect before being pulled up for the fourth scrum of the evening.

On the quarter of an hour mark Bridge gathered another loose ball as Hull failed to make the most of a penalty and fed Ormsby.

Ormsby lacked the legs to outpace the covering Robins defence and in an attempt to find a team mate threw a wild pass that was collected by the hosts.

Ryan Atkins thought he had opened the scoring two minutes later when he beat Greg Eden to Simon Grix’s kick, but the full back’s slight touch saw the pair exchange knock-ons and resulted in a Warrington scrum.

With 20 minutes played Wayne Ulugia was penalised and Bridge choose to kick for touch. Wolves worked the ball through the hands of Ratchford, Grix and Atkins before Rhys Evans was stopped short in the left corner.

Bridge’s temper flared as a scrappy half came to a head after he was tackled by Travis Burns and as the sides rushed in to support their respective team mates, Currie, who had an altercation with Ulugia moments earlier, found himself on the floor.

It was Wolves though who continued to look the more likely to score, but with 12 minutes of the half remaining Ben Evans was held up over the line from Higham’s pass.

The home fans were up in arms again moments later when Liam Salter thought he had broken free only to be pulled back for an infringement. From there Wolves worked it left but Atkins was again held up.

However, Tony Smith’s side had the ball back in hand on 32 minutes and when Bridge sent a looping pass wide to Ormsby the winger took off and acrobatically flung himself towards the corner to touchdown one-handed for his eighth try of the season. Bridge converted from a tight angle.

Wolves extended their lead with three minutes of the half remaining when Grix broke from his own half and showed impressive pace and footwork to beat four would-be-tacklers before finding the supporting Ratchford to go between the posts. Bridge added the extras.

Bridge was the architect as Wolves added gloss to what was a hard-fought first half when the half back found Monaghan for his 17th try of the season before the hooter and then converted.