Warrington had no answer to Northwich at the breakdown

AFTER an explosive start, Warrington’s third team were unable to match a much heavier and more spatially aware Northwich outfit.

The size, pace and all-round ability of the visitors seemed greatly at odds with their relatively-lowly league position.

Warrington opened their account within five minutes of the kick-off when Tom Hockenhull put in a defence-breaking twenty yard run before feeding Jordan Noone and the ubiquitous second row brushed off two tackles to touch down in the right corner.

The lead was soon increased to eight points when Matt Drinkwater slotted over a penalty, after a strong run from Tom Woodward.

At this point, Warrington looked set for an easy afternoon but Northwich had other ideas.

First a well-struck penalty reduced the Warrington lead and then their backs combined well to cross in the corner.

The try was converted from the touchline.

Warrington quickly returned to the attack, prodded by the Hockenhull brothers but Northwich soon turned defence into attack and forced a scrum five yards from the Warrington line.

The number eight picked up and fed his scrum half, who then delayed his pass to his inside centre who strolled through the gap to touch down.

Northwich were now controlling the turnovers, despite the continued efforts of Jon Wilkins and Dan Johnson, and their superiority at the breakdown was eventually converted into a 22-8 half-time lead.

The second period soon saw the visitors’ lead increased, first when their open side wing forward managed to break free from a driving maul and stroll over unopposed and then when their backs engineered a good score, the second conversion taking their lead to 36-8.

Warrington strove to convert rare pressure into points and were eventually rewarded by virtue of two moments of magic from Matt Drinkwater.

First the veteran centre rolled back the years with a scintillating, sidestepping break and then, following a number of phases, he drifted a long pass out to Craig Davies, back in his usual wing role, who made no mistake with the touchdown.

Northwich replied almost immediately when their tight-head prop found a huge hole at a five-yard lineout and bustled over.

However, the last word went to Warrington when front row forwards Ryan Preston and Sam Bennett showed slick handling to allow winger Jack Morgan to squeeze over in the corner.

“This wasn’t our best performance of the season,” said team manager Lea Graham. “We really had no answer to Northwich at the breakdown.”