IT’S two wins out of two for Warrington Wolves’ academy side after a second-half fightback at Bradford Bulls.

A late try from substitute Ben Pearce allowed The Wire to edge to a 16-14 victory at Odsal on Thursday night in heavy conditions in West Yorkshire having been 14-6 down in the second half.

Deacon Connolly and Frank Sergent also touched down for Warrington as they backed up their opening-night win over Hull FC to retain their perfect start to the season.

“The players ground out a fantastic win in heavy conditions showing resilience, patience and commitment to each other to stay in the grind,” academy head coach Mark Smith said.

“The team learnt from the home side in the first half and came out in the second half with a better mindset to play the conditions and build pressure which eventually told on the home side, providing us with the opportunities to score.

“I was immensely proud of the team’s effort to come away with the win.”

After emerging from Daniel Hackney’s period in the sin bin early on, The Wire took the lead when Joe Hickey and Flynn Holden combined to send Sergent over in the corner.

However, they would trail going into the break as quickfire tries from Joel Rice and Lewis Emmerson put them in command, with Sam Ackroyd then adding a penalty after the interval to go with his two conversions.

Wire’s fightback began when Hickey and Holden were again at the heart of things, with the latter sending Connolly over as the centre used his strength to brush off three defenders en route to scoring.

Then, the winning moment came with five minutes remaining as a massive hit forced the ball loose as Bradford tried to come off their own line, with Pearce pouncing to ground the ball as it was kicked into the in-goal area.

The next academy game sees them take on St Helens at Victoria Park on Saturday, April 13.

Wolves: Flynn Holden; Frank Sergent, Deacon Connolly, Charlie Walker, Rafael Van Osselaer; Joe Hickey, Daniel Regan; Charlie Mckler, Lewis Barratt, Tom McKinney, Daniel Hackney, Kian Stanton, Alfie Mather. Subs: Junior Westwood, Ben Pearce, James McGuire, Harrison Rigby. 18th man: Oliver Evans