WARRINGTON Wolves’ academy side managed to bounce back to winning ways on Saturday thanks to a strong second-half performance.

The Wire headed to Wakefield Trinity having lost to St Helens last time out, but they led 16-12 at the break to put themselves on track to bring home the points.

They then pulled away after the interval with Zack Gardner – the son of former Great Britain international and Wire’s current head of performance Ade – starring with two tries and five goals in a 42-22 victory.

Prop Tom McKinney and winger Frank Sergent also scored twice, with Daniel Regan and Lewis Barratt touching down to complete the victory and make it three wins out of four in 2024 for the team.

“As a team, the lads managed to find a way to win the game although for large parts of the first half we were our own worst enemy in not nailing some of the fundamentals of our identity as a team, which we addressed at half time,” academy head coach Mark Smith said.

“There were some real positives from the game going into the second half and also plenty of fix ups for us to work on before our next outing.”

McKinney crashed over from close range to open the scoring before Sergent stretched out to touch down following a long pass from full-back Flynn Holden to put The Wire in command.

Back came Wakefield, however, and after prop Ellis Lingard had raced home from halfway, Will Brough supported Cain Staveley-Carr’s break and converted to level the scores.

That proved the cue for the visitors to move into what looked to be a decisive lead as Holden set up Gardner to race clear for his first try before McKinney started the second half by scoring a carbon-copy try to his first.

When Gardner then knocked a kick back into Regan’s hands for the half-back to score, Warrington were 26-12 ahead.

Trinity hit back as Staveley-Carr brushed off some weak tackling to score and while Gardner’s interception try kept the hosts at arm’s length, Amir Sghaier’s try showed they would not go quietly.

However, Wire made sure of the win when Holden once again set up Sergent to cross in the corner before Barratt burrowed over from dummy-half with the game’s final play to put the icing on the cake.

Wire’s next academy game is on Saturday, May 11, when Hull KR visit Victoria Park

Wolves: Flynn Holden; Lachlan Webster, Zack Gardner, Jake Nottingham, Frank Sergent; Daniel Regan, Junior Westwood; Charlie Mckler, Lewis Barratt, Tom McKinney, James McGuire, Kian Stanton, Jake Ramsden. Subs: Lucas Mulqueeney, Alfie Mather, Kaden Johnson, Sam Roberts. 18th: Oliver Evans