Warrington Wolves held off a brave fightback from Wakefield Trinity to close out a 27-16 win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium and maintain their perfect start to the new Betfred Super League season.
After Marc Sneyd kicked a penalty to edge the Wolves ahead, Toafofoa Sipley bundled himself over in the 33rd minute and grounded the ball after initially being held up on the line and after a lengthy review by the video referee, the try was given.
The visitors maintained their momentum with a second try just three minutes later after a break from Danny Walker and Albert Hopoate went over under the posts.
Just before half-time, Sipley was shown a yellow card for repeated fouls and Max Jowitt kicked over the resulting penalty as Warrington took a 14-2 lead into the break.
Wakefield rallied at the start of the second half, making their advantage count when Jake Trueman’s looping pass out to the left found Jayden Myers who dived over in the corner.
But Warrington hit straight back when Sneyd’s kick was touched down by Josh Smith before another penalty restored their lead at 22-10 just after the hour.
Trinity, though, showed great spirit to come again with 10 minutes left through Oliver Pratt’s try after a kick through from Jack Sinfield, which Jowitt converted.
Warrington eventually made sure of victory in the 78th minute with a well-worked try when a precise kick from Sneyd towards the corner was patted back by Smith and Toby King crashed over.
St Helens cruise to big win in Perpignan
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A huge second half powered St Helens to a 36-4 win over Catalans Dragons in Perpignan for their second win of the season.
The first try came 11 minutes in when Shane Wright broke through the middle of the home defence before laying the ball off for Daryl Clark to charge forward and mark his 350th Super League appearance with the opening points of the
evening.
Jackson Klemmer added the conversion for a 6-0 lead, and that is how it remained for the rest of the half as the Dragons were unable to capitalise on a couple of chances to get on the board themselves.
However, the second half was largely one-way traffic as Clark picked out Jacob Host to charge over for the second try of the afternoon in the 50th minute, and 10 minutes later Hastings found Wright who spun his way over the line to score.
Clark got the fourth after Alex Walmsley brought the Saints forward, and Hasting’s fourth conversion of the afternoon brought up a 24-0 lead.
Catalans pulled one back 10 minutes from time to avoid a whitewash as Josh Simms charged down the left and played the ball inside for Charlie Staines to cross in the corner, but Toby Sexton missed the conversion.
Saints kept pushing. Hastings kicked a penalty with nine minutes left to add two points to the tally and with more to come at the death as Kyle Feldt scored two tries in the space of three minutes.
First Harry Robertson found him in the corner to force his way over the line, and then at the death he jumped high to haul in Hastings’ kick to add further gloss to the scoreline.
