The story of a thrilling Wire-Saints Reserves contest

THOSE who took in Saturday’s reserve fixture between Warrington Wolves and St Helens on Saturday certainly got their money’s worth.

With the game having been moved to The Halliwell Jones Stadium from Victoria Park, both sets of players seemed to relish the occasion as they produced a highly entertaining affair.

In the end, it was The Wire who emerged victorious, with Joe Hickey’s late penalty giving them a 36-34 victory.

It was a win that showed the team’s character, requiring them to recover from going 18-0 down inside the first 15 minutes before they fought back from six points down with just five minutes left.

Frank Sergent’s second try followed by Hickey’s nerveless touchline conversion levelled matters at 34-34 and after Wire launched an assault from the restart, a high tackle on Lucas Green allowed Hickey to slot over the winning penalty.

Warrington also had two separate spells with men in the sin bin, with Sam Marshall yellow-carded in the second half while Tom Whitehead went the same way in a flare-up following Sergent’s equalising try that also saw St Helens’ Max McGucken shown yellow.

“There were some massive swings in momentum throughout the game, which was predominantly down to each team having block of conceding back-to-back penalties,” reserves head coach Ryan O’Brien said.

“St Helens were clinical with their opening batch of possession and field position, and we showed a lot of character to come back and take the lead going into half time.

“We started the second half strong, but the sin bin disrupted our flow and St Helens again took advantage of their time with the ball.

“To then claw our way back and get in front for a second time was extremely pleasing.

“Our performance was scratchy with plenty of things to fix up, but to succeed in this game sometimes you have to win ugly and our boys have had experience of that today.”

Saints looked set for a comfortable victory as they flew out of the traps, with Jamaine Carty, Ben Will and McKenzie Buckley all touching down inside the first quarter of an hour.

However, they did not account for a strong Wire response which saw the hosts take a 20-18 half-time lead.

Zac Bardsley-Rowe forced his way over on the left to get them on the scoreboard before Sergent squeezed over in the right corner to reduce the gap further.

From the restart, Bardsley-Rowe was sent through and after he was hauled down, Zack Gardner executed a superb chip-and-chase to ground and by the time Stephen Antrobus had crashed over from a Jamie Reddecliff offload on the stroke of half time, Warrington had turned a hopeless situation into a promising one.

Their momentum continued after the break, with Hickey showing presence of thought to kick on a loose ball and touch down before turning provider for Gardner’s second try.

However, Marshall’s sin-binning for a shoulder charge gave Saints the chance to strike back – a chance they took thanks to three tries in eight minutes from McGucken, Will and Buckley while the hosts were a man down.

Once they were restored to a full complement of players, however, the rescue act was on and after Sergent had touched down for his second try, Hickey’s assured boot did the rest.

The next reserves fixture is on Saturday, July 27, when Bradford Bulls visit Victoria Park.

Wolves: Zack Gardner; Frank Sergent, Ewan Smith, Zac Bardsley-Rowe, Jake Thewlis; Joe Hickey, Adam Whalley; Daniel Okoro, Ben Hartill, Lucas Green, Scott Parnaby, Nolan Tupaea, Tom Whitehead. Subs: Daniel Regan, Stephen Antrobus, Jamie Reddecliff, Sam Marshall. 18th: Logan Raughter