Warrington Wolves u19 24 St Helens u19 50

WOLVES Under-19s’ recent winning run came to a shuddering halt on Friday as they were comprehensively beaten by St Helens, who in turned stretched their 100% record.

Despite an improved second-half performance in which they ran in four tries, Wolves were blown away in the first half as Saints recorded a deserved victory.

The visitors got off to a flying start when Aaron Smith burrowed over from dummy-half under the posts, before Regan Grace went over in the left corner to put Saints 10-0 up inside seven minutes.

Wolves hit back and got themselves on the board shortly after when Declan Kay linked into the line from full-back and fed Jack Roper, who held off three Saints defenders to score in the right corner.

However, that was as good as it got for the hosts in the first half as they were hit by a clinical Saints side Substitute Jonah Cunningham raced through a huge gap to score under the posts before they stretched Wolves with some slick passing that eventually found Mike Weldon in acres of space to go over wide on the left to make the score 22-4 at half-time.

It was imperative Wolves started the second half well, but they conceded again just two minutes after the restart when Cunningham picked up a quick play-the-ball after a break from Danny Richardson and he scored next to the posts for his second of the game.

Alex Eckley then exploited some weak Wolves tackling to power over under the posts as Saints’ grip on the game grew ever stronger.

With the score standing at 34-4, the hosts looked down and out but they raised themselves with two tries in a three-minute period.

First, a long ball from Brad Stanway found Charlie Pythian and he stepped back inside to score next to the posts.

Straight from the restart, Pythian broke clear and offloaded to Kay, who put Jack Fox over in the left corner and Morgan Smith’s conversion brought the score back to 34-16.

It wasn’t to be the catalyst for a memorable comeback, though, as Saints got back on the front foot when Ricky Bailey crossed next to the posts.

The visitors then went down the blind-side from a scrum and Dave Eccleston went over in the right corner.

Roper forced his way over for his second try as Wolves refused to give up, but Cunningham completed his hat-trick to bring Saints to the half-century mark.

Fox secured a brace of his own as he was found in space to score wide on the left as Wolves had the last laugh on an ultimately disappointing evening.

Briers’ men now face a trip to Salford Red Devils in their next outing on Thursday, May 12.

Wolves: Kay; Turner, Roper, Pythian, Fox; Stanway, Smith; Philbin, Brunt, Williams, Kilgannon, Jones, Livett. Subs: Whalley, Neath, Reardon, Moran