Ratchford wins try of the year award (From Warrington Guardian)

Warrington Wolves' Stefan Ratchford wins try of the year award

8:15am Monday 24th September 2012 in Wolves news By Mike Parsons

IT was fitting that Stefan Ratchford collected the Warrington Wolves Supporters’ Trust try of the year award on a night when he scored another beauty.

He was presented with his award on the pitch after the play-offs defeat of Hull in which a touch of his brilliance with a well executed try helped to kill off the contest.

Chris Hill, named the Supporters’ Trust player of the year to add to the honours bestowed upon him by the club and his teammates, helped create the opportunity with a wonderful offload at the start of his second spell on the field.

But when Ratchford received the ball he had two men in front of him and nothing looked on.

He skipped backwards out of the defenders’ clutches, turned on the gas and looked up to see that 25 metres from the line there was nobody at home behind the Hull defensive line.

So Ratchford kicked ahead and regathered cleanly off his bootlaces after a fortuitous rebound off the post for the important first score of the second half to hand Wolves an 18-0 advantage that proved beyond Hull FC.

Afterwards Wolves boss Tony Smith said: “His try was spectacular and it shows what he can do.

“He’s got the ball on a spring sometimes. With his little injections of play and the half backs combining well, they do some nice skilful things and it’s nice to have that bit of X factor in your team that can pull something out like that.

“Stef has been doing those type of things this year quite a lot, may be not in every game but not far off coming up with something jaw-dropping.

“He’s been a great addition to us.”

Unfortunately, the Supporter’s Trust voting system points to the scorer of the try of the year but does not highlight a specific try.

Ratchford has scored some beauties though, with his long-range effort after combining with Rhys Evans in the home win against London Broncos among the most memorable.

His double in the win at Wakefield and four in the victory at home to Bradford also stand out.

The Supporters’ Trust other award, the tackler of the year prize, went to Ben Westwood .