WARRINGTON Wolves shone at a sun-drenched Halliwell Jones Stadium to completely dominate Salford City Reds for the second time in three weeks.

Brian Noble’s Salford were largely unchanged from the side that went down 52-6 in the Challenge Cup, meaning there can be few surprises that Warrington once again blew the visitors away with an almost faultless performance of pace, power and superb handling.

It was a day for milestones at the Halliwell Jones, with Simon Grix’s appearance at centre bringing up his 150th in primrose and blue since making his debut in April, 2006. He was joined by Ben Westwood, who not only went over for his 100th Warrington try but followed it up with a second and third to score a rare hat-trick. Chris Riley completed the set, scoring his 100th Super League try in the second half, adding to efforts from Joel Monaghan, two, Michael Monaghan, Micky Higham, Richie Myler, Stefan Ratchford and Ben Currie, two, to complete the rout.

Similar to the defeat of St Helens last week, Warrington struck early. The hosts opened a 10-0 lead inside the opening seven minutes courtesy of Ben Westwood’s 100th and 101st tries for Wolves, the first coming after they had been gifted a penalty in front of Salford’s posts. Brier’s pass sent the second rower, who is celebrating his testimonial year, crashing over for his 100th in primrose and blue.

Stefan Ratchford missed the extras, but soon had the chance to redeem himself once Westwood had charged over for his second in as many minutes. Wolves had immediately looked to strike again from kick off, with Simon Grix making a superb break up the right that was halted 30-metres out. Salford couldn’t live with Wolves’ speed at the play-the-ball, and Higham’s quick thinking sent Westwood racing up the wing for his fourth of the season, Ratchford converted for 10-0.

The home support had to wait just eight minutes for the game’s third try, which came off the back of Marc Sneyd clearing up Ryan Atkins’ kick and chase for a goal-line drop out. Working the ball right, Myler’s sidestep and Lee Briers’ beautiful looping cut-out pass allowed Joel Monaghan to cut inside off the wing to score his 18th try of the season. Ratchford made it 16-0.

It was clear that Salford were struggling to keep up with the sheer speed of Wolves’ play, while their kicking game left a lot to be desired as they placed kick after kick down the throat of Ratchford at the back. As a result they struggled to keep the home side at bay, with Wolves’ fourth try coming on 20 minutes after a nice combination of Myler and Ben Currie. The young second row backed up Myler’s break and the pass split Sneyd to send him over for his third of the season. Ratchford’s kick opened a 22-0 home lead.

The visitors had barely managed a set inside Wolves’ 30-metre line, with the only danger in a one-sided opening quarter coming when Liam Foran’s grubber ran long on 12 minutes. But the loud Salford support was given the chance to cheer on 25 minutes, when Joel Monaghan failed to keep hold of Jodie Broughton out wide and the winger crossed to open the visitor’s account.

It was the only highlight in an otherwise bleak half of rugby for Brian Noble’s side, and before the 40 minutes was up Wolves had again split the Salford defence. Once again, it was the combination of Myler and Currie’s speed and agility that was the difference, with the 18-year-old’s power and pace taking him around the chasing defence to score his second of the game. Ratchford’s kick made the half time score 28-4 to the in-charge hosts.

The half time break had done little to change the flow of the game, and Wolves picked up exactly where they had left off. It took just five minutes for them to extend their lead again, with their speed around the ruck causing chaos in Salford’s defence. Atkins’ break up the middle was backed up by Myler and Ratchford, and the latter took a pass from the former to drop over between the sticks. Ratchford converted.

Atkins was then denied a wonderful try after stepping out of play on his way to the line, but it mattered little. Wolves went on to blitz the hapless Salford with five tries in 10 minutes to bring up the 60-point mark and leave the result a formality.

Joel Monaghan’s assured finish off a Briers assist started the ball rolling, before Ratchford, Riley and Myler combined for a try of the season contender. Riley’s deft offload out the back of the hand sent Ratchford on a long, raking run through the Salford defence and Myler was on hand to tie Sneyd in knots before reaching out for the line. It was the least the scrum half deserved for his performance, with Ratchford’s kick bringing up 46-4 on the scoreboard.

Having already touched down his 100th and 101st tries for the club, Westwood added his hat-trick in the 57th minute. It was a carbon copy of his first, with Briers providing the pass and the second rower barrelling over the line to break the 50-point mark in the game.

It took just a minute for Wolves to break another milestone, this time Riley taking his turn to score a landmark try, his 100th in Super League. It came after Atkins had put him up the wing, with Ratchford’s conversion making it 56-4 with 58 minutes played.

The final try of Wolves’ devastating spell came from an unlikely source, as Michael Monaghan came off the bench to break his duck for the season. A break from midfield saw the hooker scampering up the field with Currie in pursuit, but Monaghan scented the try line and he denied the second rower a hat-trick by dummying the full back and sliding over. Ratchford added the extras. 

The Salford fans had seen enough and after Monaghan celebrated by throwing the ball into the stands some trouble errupted among the Reds fans, who until that point had been vocal and upbeat in their support. A bottle was thrown on to the pitch, which was then handed to a steward by Ben Westwood. But one of the Salford fans reacted angily, causing him to be restrained by stewards and prompting Salford owner Dr Marwan Koukash to head into the visiting supporters to calm the situation down.

Lee Gaskell had not enjoyed the best of games, but he did manage to bring up the 10-point mark for the visitors when touching down under pressure on the right. But the last action of the match was left, fittingly, to Wolves. Westwood’s offload sent Currie scampering away and Higham took the pass and side-stepped the defender to score Wolves’ final try, with Ratchford’s conversion securing a dominant 68-10 victory for the classy hosts.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Joel Monaghan, Simon Grix, Ryan Atkins, Chris Riley; Lee Briers, Richie Myler; Paul Wood, Micky Higham, Chris Hill, Trent Waterhouse, Ben Westwood, Ben Currie. Subs: Adrian Morley, Michael Monaghan, Garreth Carvell, Tyrone McCarthy.

Salford: Marc Sneyd; Ashley Gibson, Martin Gleeson, Lee Gaskell, Jodie Broughton; Ryan McGoldrick, Theo Fages; Jake Emmitt, Liam Foran, Adam Walne, Matty Ashurst, Andrew Dixon, Stephen Wild. Subs: Wayne Godwin, Jordan James, Adam Neal, Vic Mauro.