Warrington 82-6 Harlequins

Brett Hodgson kicked Warrington to the top of the Super League after scoring 13 conversions during a record breaking afternoon for the Wolves.

Hodgson, who transferred from Huddersfield to Warrington during the winter, scored 30 individual points which included his 13 conversions and a try towards the end of the game.

Warrington scored 14 tries against the London based club, as well as breaking their own highest win record in Super League.

Chris Bridge opened the scoring after six minutes on the clock. Passes from Briers and Myler opened up the Harlequins defence and allowed Bridge to squeeze over and ground the ball on the line.

After a quarter of an hour of the game Bridge crossed again for his second try of the afternoon. Michael Monaghan’s pass found Briers again and combined with Myler across the face of the posts which opened up Harequins’ right defensive side for the centre to score.

And with a quarter of the game gone, Warrington struck again. Michael Monaghan’s offload in the Harlequins’ tackle found Richie Myler. With Briers in support and only the fullback to beat, Myler made sure the pass was perfect and Briers added another four points to the Warrington score.

Bridge then completed his hat trick five minutes later, again on the left hand side. Passing combinations from Briers and Myler left Jamie O’Clallaghan in no mans land and Bridge did just enough to overcome the defensive effort of Tony Clubb on the line.

By now it was 24-0, with Brett Hodgson converting all of Warrington’s tries so far.

Harlequins opened their scoring not long after. Luke Dorn burrowed his way through the Warrington defence to score under the goal posts, and Luke Gale converted the try.

But two minutes later Harlequins hit the self destruct button and gifted Warrington two tries inside their own ten metres.

Tony Clubb collected Lee Briers’ grubber kick in his own in-goal, but offloaded to Luke Dorn. The Warrington defence closed down Dorn, and in an effort to free the ball, Dorn’s offload went wayward and David Solomona was the first to react to the loose ball.

Moments later after a strong Warrington set of six, David Howell collected the ball in his own in-goal once again. But unfortunately for Harlequins as he went to ground in the field of play, the ball came loose and Richie Myler strolled in for an easy try to the right hand side of the posts.

Warrington’s tactics were becoming more obvious as they began splitting the Quins right side with ease. Rhys Evans completed what was a wonderful attacking move down the far side of the field to take the scores to 42-6 after only three minutes of the second half.

David Solomona then scored an unlikely try to claim his second of the afternoon. Warrington were camped on the Quins try line when Solomona, instead of driving forward like a usual forward, side stepped two Quins defenders and was place the ball on the line.

Danny Ward was sin binned on the 56th minute for a holding down in the tackle a bit too long with the try line begging for Warrington. This set up the Wolves for another score, this time Adrian Morley used his strength to charge under the posts.

There were further tries from Lee Mitchell and Matty Blythe, who found a gap to score under the posts, while Ben Westwood strolled in on the Quins right side after simple passing between Briers and Myler yet again.

Westwood scrambled over again ten minutes later, this time on the opposite side of the field after being fed the ball from the two Warrington half backs. This time Hodgson missed his first kick of the game, which was greeted by sarcastic jeers from the Warrington crowd.

Finally Hodgson scored in the corner to round off Warrington’s try scoring achievements. He converted his own try to send the Wolves to the top of Super League.

Warrington: Hodgeson, J Monaghan, Blythe, Bridge, Evans, Briers, Myler, Carvell, M Monaghan, Wood, Grix, Westwood, Harrison.
Subs: Morley, Solomona, Mitchell, Clarke.

Harlequins: Dorn, Melling, Howell, Pryce, O’Callaghan, Gale, Randall, Ward, Ellis, Wilkes, Clubb, Purdham, Bailey.
Subs: Temata, Ambler, Bryan, Kouparitsas.

Warrington tries: Bridge (3), Briers, Solomona (2), Myler, Evans, Morley, Mitchell, Blythe, Westwood (2), Hodgson.
Goals: Hodgson, 13/14.

Harlequins tries: Dorn.
Goals: Gale.

Referee: Steve Ganson.