Wire cruise past Saints
A dominant second-half performance saw Warrington complete their comeback and run out 40-18 winners against St Helens at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The result moves Wire level on points with Saints and Catalans but stay in ninth place due to an inferior score difference.
Warrington had a number of players away on international duty with England, so head coach Tony Smith put Kurt Gidley at full-back while Harvey Livett replaced Kevin Brown in the halves.
There was also a place in the starting 13 for Mike Cooper as Chris Hill is also part of the England squad set to take on Samoa on Saturday.
In addition, Ben Westwood returned from a four-game suspension, coming in for Joe Westerman, who was out with a neck injury whilst George King was named in the squad for the first time this season.
St Helens also had a couple of players away on international duty, which meant 20-year-old Jake Spedding replaced Mark Percival in the centres whilst Kyle Amor came into the front row for Alex Walmsley.
Saints were forced into a late change, Morgan Knowles replacing captain Jon Wilkin, who picked up an injury during the pre-match warm-up.
The visitors made use of the blustery conditions right from the first whistle, Tommy Lee’s delivery from the kick-off bouncing away from the Warrington players which allowed the visitors to regain the ball. Moments later and their opening set culminated in a try, Adam Swift diving over in the corner.
Warrington struggled to get out of their own half in the opening ten minutes and a high tackle from Gidley on Kyle Amor didn’t help their cause, Tommy Makinson slotting the penalty between the sticks.
Midway through the first half, the Wolves started to build some pressure near the Saints line but were thwarted by some great defensive efforts from the away side, Brad Dwyer and Tom Lineham both being held up.
Ryan Morgan was allowed to ghost through the Warrington line, brushing past three Wolves players, to further extend Saints’ advantage. Makinson nailed the conversion to put St Helens 14-0 in front with 14 minutes of the first half remaining.
Benjamin Jullien eventually opened the scoring for the Wire just after the half-hour mark, sneaking in after receiving the ball from Declan Patton.
After a sluggish start, Warrington sprung into life approaching the break, Cooper dotting down for the Wire’s second try in three minutes.
Saints made a lightning start to the first half but it was the Wolves who were quicker out of the blocks after the interval, Livett crossing over after Rhys Evans forced Theo Fages to drop the ball.
Warrington started to assert their authority on the game, the ball going through the hands of Patton and Livett before ending up with Evans who spun across the whitewash.
Tom Lineham capitalized on a loose pass from Makinson and added his name to the scoresheet to help Warrington pull away from Saints on the scoreboard.
St Helens’ chances of achieving a positive result continued to grow smaller, Ryan Atkins grounding the ball after a blistering run from Evans.
Makinson thought he had found an opening down the left to restore some pride but was thwarted by Matty Russell.
St Helens did score a second-half try courtesy of Dominique Peyroux, but with nine minutes remaining it seemed too much of a mountain to climb.
With less a minute to play Atkins pounced on Patton’s grubber kick to dive over, rubbing salt into the wounds for St Helens, and making certain of the two points for the Wolves.
