JAMES Harrison and Greg Minikin made their first appearances in Warrington Wolves colours on Saturday.
Both featured in the reserves’ 40-6 loss to Wigan on Saturday, marking their comebacks after both suffered ACL injuries while playing for Featherstone Rovers and Hull KR respectively.
Harrison lined up at loose forward while Minikin played on the wing, but they could not stop Danny Evans’ side from losing to their neighbours.
Greg Minikin played on the wing as he too returned from a serious knee injury. Picture by Bob Brough
Dan Brewin’s try and Leon Hayes’ conversion had opened the scoring and although the hosts eventually ran out comfortable winners, Evans was pleased with plenty of what he saw from his players.
“I couldn’t fault the effort or attitude of the lads today,” he said post-match.
“They scored three converted tries in the last seven minutes of the half to give them a healthy lead that was very flattering for them as we had competed really well up to that point.
“In the second half we made to many errors and let them play far too quickly and the scoreline got away from us at the end.
“The lads worked well for the full 80 minutes – it was just our execution that wasn’t upto our usual standard.
“It was great to see Greg Minikin and James Harrison make their comebacks from long-term injury, and both will be better off for getting the game under their belt.”
Match action photos by Bob Brough below
It took until the 26th minute for any points to be registered and it was the visitors who opened the scoring.
Hooker Tom Inman ran the ball on the last tackle and found Brewin at speed to power over on the left.
But then, seven minutes later, Wigan full back Zach Eckersley collected a kick on his own line before racing 70 metres to put his side in a great position and on the last tackle of the set, prop forward Jack Bibby chipped into the in-goal area and collected the ball to score on the left.
Stand off Adam Jones added the conversion to level matters.
From the restart, the Warriors went the full length of the field and the ball was kept alive on the last tackle and scrum half Logan Astley scored on the right.
Jones converted and then in the last minute of the half, Astley found Jones on the last tackle and he chipped behind the Wolves line and collected the ball to score on the right and make it three back-to-back tries without Warrington touching the ball.
Jones added the conversion to his own try to give the home side a 18-6 half time advantage.
Wigan moved further ahead six minutes into the second half when they swept the ball out wide to centre Sam Halsall and his quick ‘tip’ pas put winger Ben O’Keefe over in the left corner.
O’Keefe converted from the touchline and then eight minutes later, a lovely ball from centre Alex Sutton put winger Tom Mitchell over in the right corner. O’Keefe added another touchline conversion.
The Warriors went over once again when more slicking handling saw the ball move the width of the field and reached Mitchell, who stepped back inside to score wide out on the right.
With two minutes remaining, Wigan substitute Kieran Tyrer intercepted a Wolves pass from a scrum on the halfway line and he raced 50 metres to score at the side of the posts. O’Keefe added the conversion to complete a 40-6 win for the Warriors.
Wolves: Noah Booth, Greg Minikin, Zac Bardsley-Rowe, Jake Thewlis, Josh Lynch, Jack Darbyshire, Leon Hayes, Morgan Burgess, Tom Inman, Luke Thomas, Adam Holroyd, Dan Brewin, James Harrison. Subs: Lucas Green, Bobby Shingler, Joe Bajer, Sam Marshall
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