Wolves' Academy side succeed where first team fail (From Warrington Guardian)

Warrington Wolves u19s romp to victory against St Helens

12:06pm Monday 11th March 2013 in Wolves news

Warrington Wolves u19 24 St Helens u19 12

WARRINGTON Wolves secured a brilliant victory over arch rivals St. Helens in a thrilling under 19 Academy fixture in difficult conditions at Wilderspool Stadium.

Both sides can be proud of the way that they performed in a high quality encounter, but it was the sheer will and determination of the Warrington players that saw them come out on top and claim a richly deserved win.

An even start prevented any early scores, but when Wolves had hooker Ryan Maneely sinbinned for preventing a quick 20-metre restart just before the half hour it allowed St. Helens to take advantage and a short ball from stand off Lewis Charnock found second row Connor Dwyer, who forced his way over on the right.

Charnock added the conversion but Wolves responded by forcing an error from the restart, allowing them to get the ball deep in Saints' half.

The ball was sent quickly along the line to centre Jordan Burns, who squeezed over in the left corner to reduce the arrears.

Stand off Jimmy Rowland converted from the touchline and then added a penalty goal right on the stroke of half time following a high tackle to give his side a narrow 8-6 interval lead.

Wolves increased their advantage three minutes into the second half, when a short ball from Maneely found substitute Andy Ackers running a great line to go 40-metres, splitting the Saints defence before finding Rowland in support to race over between the posts.

Rowland added the conversion to his own try before a period of sustained Saints pressure saw them claw their way back into the game, as scrum half Dave Hewitt and full back Daniel Abram combined to put centre Lewis Galbraith over in the left corner just before the hour mark.

Charnock converted from wide out to reduce the deficit to just two points once again.

The next 15 minutes saw both sides have chances, with one golden opportunity in particular coming from Saints prop forward Adam Hesketh's run to the line only to be halted by a thumping tackle from Maneely and second row Jonny Brown to keep Wolves' line intact.

This galvanised the hosts and when Saints made an error in their own half, Wolves full back James Saltonstall kicked the ball ahead and Rowland was the quickest to react to score between the posts.

He converted himself to restore the eight point cushion.

Wolves made sure of the two league points four minutes from time, when hooker Ryan Maneely caught the Saints defenders napping as he went on his own from dummy half to score wide out on the left and wrap up Wolves' second win from two games.

Wolves: James Saltonstall, Jack Johnson, Will Fairhurst, Jordan Burns, Jake Eccleston, Jimmy Rowland, Declan Patton, Daniel Murray, Ryan Maneely, Joe Philbin, Jacque Peet, Jonny Brown, Will Milner. Subs: Andy Ackers, Sam Wilde, Robert Holroyd, Joe Collins.

Saints: Daniel Abram, Corey Lee, Greg Wilde, Lewis Galbraith, Ben Parry, Lewis Charnock, Dave Hewitt, Adam Hesketh, Dominic Speakman, Luke Thompson, Alex Clare, Connor Dwyer, James Tilley. Subs: Tom Roughley, Jack Ashworth, Greg Richards, Chris Webster.