Hull KR u19s 10 Warrington Wolves u19s 22

WARRINGTON Wolves enjoyed a hard-fought victory over Hull Kingston Rovers in the under 19s Academy on Friday at the KC Lightstream Stadium to increase their lead at the top of the table.

The sides met for the second time in a week and following Wolves’ convincing win last week at home, Rovers proved to be a much tougher proposition on their own patch but the young Wolves were upto the challenge and deservedly took the spoils.

Wolves opened the scoring after 10 minutes when French scrum half Louis Jouffret intercepted a Hull KR pass and showed great speed as he raced 75 metres to outpace the chasing defenders and score between the posts.

Stand off Declan Patton converted but the home side responded eight minutes before the break when good hands saw the ball swept across the field and scrum half Matt Marsh put second row Aiden Armstrong through a gap to score on the right. Hooker Connor Robinson added the conversion to make the half time score 6-6.

Seven minutes into the second half Hull KR had winger Ben Holdstock sin binned for preventing Wolves from taking a quick 20 metre tap and Wolves made the extra man count seven minutes later when full back Jack Johnson made a fine 60 metre break from deep inside his own half.

After two quick play the balls put them close to the Hull KR line Jouffret chipped through and centre Toby King reacted quickest to score on the left.

Patton goaled but then just before the hour Rovers responded once again when a handling error by Wolves gave them a scrum 10 metres out and the ball was sent out wide to centre Alex Gilbey who scored in the left corner. Robinson converted from the touchline to level matters at 12-12.

Wolves upped their game and five minutes later after Johnson had been held just short, centre Jake Eccleston went down the blind side from dummy half and found winger Ben Stansfield who squeezed over in the right corner.

Eight minutes from time a kick through by Rovers was collected by Johnson and he raced 90 metres down the left wing to score at the side of the posts. Patton converted to complete an excellent 22-12 victory and make it 12 wins from 13 games this season.

Wolves: Jack Johnson; Ben Stansfield, Jake Eccleston, Toby King, Declan Kay; Declan Patton, Louis Jouffret; Tom Walker, Daniel Hirst, Alex Whalley, James Jones, Sam Wilde, Sean Kenny. Subs: Robert Holroyd, Morgan Nicholas, Andy Philbin, Ryan Maneely.