Warrington Beat Wakefield To Extend Winning Start

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Warrington Wolves (14) 27


Tries: Sipley, Hopoate, Smith, King Goals: Sneyd 5 Drop objective: Sneyd


Wakefield Trinity (2) 16


Tries: Jowitt, Myers, Pratt Goals: Jowitt 2


Warrington made it through a strong Wakefield fightback in the 2nd half to make it two wins from 2 in Super League.


The Wolves, who were coming off the back of a blank weekend because of Hull Kingston Rovers' participation on the planet Club Challenge, appeared to have taken a firm grip on the game in the very first half.


Tries from Toafofoa Sipley and Albert Hopoate, along with the trusted kicking of Marc Sneyd, had them 14-2 up at the break.


Trinity, who chalked up their first win of the season at Huddersfield recently, returned well as Jake Trueman brilliantly developed pursues Max Jowitt and Jayden Myers.


Wire responded as Australian newbie Josh Smith crossed for his very first try but Oliver Pratt's rating for Trinity set up a nervy ending, with the result settled by Sneyd's drop objective and Toby King's late shot.


Wire offered more that they could make a fist of challenging for honours this season as Sneyd provided a kicking masterclass and they had the defensive durability to hold company as Trinity came excellent.


Wakefield had actually won the previous 3 conferences of these 2, but they were soon in trouble as Sneyd slotted over a charge and then video referee Chris Kendall reversed an on-field decision of "no shot" to offer Sipley 4 points.


A few minutes later, Hopoate supported Danny Walker's break to streak away for another shot for 14-0.


Wire seemed to have made a pricey error as they reacted to strong Wakefield pressure right at the end of the half by devoting repeat offenses which saw Sipley sin-binned and Jowitt kick the resulting charge to offer his side a toe-hold.


That ended up being a firmer platform early in the 2nd half as Trinity made use of the additional guy, Trueman slinging a great pass over the top for Jowitt to score in the corner.


Sipley's very first act on going back to the field was a ruck infringement which led to Trueman coming up with an even much better looping cut-out pass and Myers ended up to cut the cause simply 4 points.


That stimulated Wire into action after a drop in tempo and Sneyd's boot took control as he cracked the ball out to Smith, playing superior rugby for the very first time, to score his very first shot, which Sneyd transformed and then included a charge to provide his side breathing room.


Pratt then got on the end of a fine kick by Jack Sinfield to score in the corner and when Jowitt remarkably nailed the difficult conversion, the game was back in the balance.


Wakefield seemed certain to score as Myers spotted for the corner but 20-year-old full-back Cai Taylor-Wray, who wowed the crowd with his attacking prowess against St Helens, produced a stunning tackle to bundle him into touch and keep the lead.


Sneyd dropped an objective and then chipped another delicate kick to the corner for Smith to get and pass in mid-air for King to eliminate any doubt.


Six-try St Helens thrash Catalans in Perpignan


'A really premium video game'


"It was an actually top quality video game. Both sides were at 90-something percent conclusion.


"They were physical and we needed to ride out the very first half however the video game lost its way a bit in the 2nd half - [it was] not down to the players, it just got a bit stop-start.


"In the first half we could have attacked a little better. There are locations we can look at where we can challenge a little bit more and ask a couple of more concerns.


"The way the video game is going, it will take teams 8 to 10 weeks to figure it out, and it's the exact same with us. Our persistence was excellent at times and we were 100% in the first half up until the unfortunate sin-binning."


Warrington Wolves: Taylor-Wray; Thewlis, King, Hopoate, Smith; Williams, Sneyd; Yates, Walker, Byrne, Stone, Harrison, Currie.


Replacements: Sipley, Crowther, Philbin, Tanginoa.


Wakefield Trinity: Jowitt; Pratt, Scott, Hall, Myers; Sinfield, Trueman; McMeeken, Smoothy, Hamlin-Uele, Nikotemo, Vagana, Tevaga.


Replacements: Storton, Pitts, Faatili, Smith.


Referee: Liam Rush