Warrington Wolves u19s 30 Salford Red Devils u19s 28

WARRINGTON Wolves made it six league victories in a row with a thrilling success over a very resilient Salford Red Devils side in the Under 19s Academy at Crosfields ARLFC on Wednesday.

Wolves, having secured a place in the top seven before the league splits, took the opportunity to play several of the younger members of the squad who haven’t featured regularly.

Warrington opened the scoring in the fifth minute when a short ball close to the line from hooker George Moore found loose forward Harvey Livett and he managed to twist in the tackle and score at the side of the posts.

He converted himself, but five minutes later the Red Devils replied when a short ball from stand off Kane Ditchfield put centre Ben Calland through a gap and he raced 30 metres to score in the right corner.

Scrum half Aaron Moore landed a superb touchline conversion to level the scores.

Salford hit the front when they took advantage of forcing two consecutive goal line drop outs when the ball was sent out wide to centre Jake Bibby, who put winger Elliott Caine over in the left corner.

Shortly after the midway point in the half they went further ahead when quick hands along the line saw Ditchfield and Moore combine to put Bibby over wide out on the left.

Just before the half hour mark Wolves got themselves back into the game when a grubber kick into the in-goal area on the last tackle by scrum half Harry Reardon bounced awkwardly and Livett reacted the quickest to touchdown at the side of the posts.

He once again converted his own try.

As the half was coming to a close, Wolves forced Salford into back-to-back goal line drop outs and after substitute Robert Holroyd made a fine break his quick play-the-ball enabled Reardon to shoot from dummy half and race through a gap before rounding the full back and scoring at the left of the posts.

Livett added the conversion to give Wolves an 18-14 interval advantage.

Salford started the second half strongly but some fine defence from Wolves kept them at bay and 14 minutes into the half Wolves moved further ahead when impressive prop forward Daniel Murray managed to spin out of a tackle and ground the ball between the posts.

Livett goaled to give his side a 10-point cushion.

But Salford soon hit back when a loose pass from Wolves was pounced on by Red Devils and Moore scampered from dummy half following a quick play the ball and raced 30 metres to score at the left of the posts. He tagged on the conversion to narrow the gap to just four points.

A high kick by Ditchfield then bounced off a Wolves defender back into his hands and as the hosts’ defence was stretched the ball went out wide to winger Alex Gaskell who squeezed over in the right corner to level.

But a fine cross field run by Wolves centre Charlie Phythian paved the way for stand off Morgan Smith to step round three defenders and score under the posts. Livett once again added on the goal points.

A mistake from the restart by the Wolves allowed Salford to regain possession and after three good drives they moved the ball along the line to Calland who scored on the right.

Moore was unable to add the conversion and it was Wolves who were left to celebrate an excellent 30-28 win.