Warrington 36 Blackpool Borough 15

EVEN the five-tries show by Bob Eccles and nine goals from 10 shots by Steve Hesford in this John Player Trophy second round game at Wilderspool on Sunday could not hide the fact that this ‘Wire’ performance was far from convincing, writes John Dickens.

Before Warrington got into the game after 32 minutes, they had been disorganised and forwards repeatedly ran into trouble without even looking for someone to pass too.

It took a fortunate bounce to bring some life into Warrington, for until Phil Ford’s try, they had been threadbare in defence and Blackpool had shown signs of pulling off a shock victory.

From the start things didn’t look too good as John Fieldhouse gave penalties away and Laird landed one from 25 yards but missed from 40. His cricketing team-mate, Steve Hesford landed two for ‘Wire’, but that only held off the inevitable as Blackpool took five of the first six scrums.

Borough’s first try came when Macko was stopped on the left, then Davies slipped through and a large gap appeared for Greenall to score and for Laird to add the goal.

Four minutes later, Macko started another move with a long pass and after Davies had been held, a loose pass was snapped up by Stockley, who shot inside where the gaps opened up again as he raced to the posts. Laird added the goal and a couple of minutes later, dropped a goal.

Borough’s luck started to run out on the half-hour. A further Laird penalty would have put Warrington in serious trouble, but his shot curved wide and when Warrington mounted their first attack of the match, Kelly’s kick to the left bounced badly for Sivori.

The winder missed it, but it bounced nicely for Phil Ford to take a run in to the posts where Hesford goaled and then he added the points to the first Eccles try after Ken Kelly had sent the second-row man striding through from 25 yards.

Right on the interval, the usual ploy at a play-ball between Kelly and Eccles worked again as the second try was scored and Hesford was on target again.

Although Webb started to get the better of Parry in the scrums after the interval, Warrington were still laboured in their play and the wingers saw little of the ball as the game looked like dying – until Eccles took over in the last 10 minutes.

All that had been produced until then were two Hesford penalties and one by Blackpool substitute Walsh.

Then Kelly, again, made the opening with a long pass which sent Eccles dodging his way through but there was no try ‘on’ when Cooke went down the right and was stopped. Eccles took over and though there were three men in front, he outpaced them as he went for the corner.

In the last minute, a demoralised Borough defence watched as Eccles rounded off his fine feat with his fifth try at the same corner.

Although the tries were scored in the corner, Hesford missed only one shot to finish with nine goals.