Warrington academy fight back in thriller vs NSW
Author : Dave Whalley & Kyle Webster
Warrington academy fight back in thriller vs NSW
Warrington Wolves Academy produced a superb fightback to claim a richly deserved draw against a very powerful New South Wales Academy side in a high-quality encounter at McCredie Park, Guildford on Saturday morning.
A purple patch for NSW saw them score four unanswered tries in a twelve minute period midway through the first half.
The Wolves refused to buckle and after pulling a try back on the stroke of half time they came out all guns blazing in the second half and were very good value for the entertaining draw.
Warrington opened the scoring in the tenth minute when hooker Lucas Mulqueeney went on his own from dummy half on the last tackle and manage to burrow his way over from close range under the posts.
Scrum half Ewan Irwin converted but then NSW hit back six minutes later when a kick on the last tackle from scrum half Carter Mareko was fumbled by the Wolves and stand off Cooper Votano was quickest to react to pick up the loose ball and score on the right.
From the restart NSW were awarded a penalty that got them into Wolves territory and Mareko and Votano combined to find full back Talen Risati linking into the line.
Risati sliced through before sending a pass out to winger Cyrus Bloomfield who scored wide out on the left and then the Wolves conceded another penalty, this time on their own twenty metre line, and Mareko found Risati who put Bloomfield over in the left corner.
Just before the half hour NSW centre Braith Sloane sent Bloomfield away on a fifty metre run down the wing that split the Wolves defence and he found substitute Michael Nauer in support to race over on the left.
Bloomfield converted but then on the stroke of half time.
Then the Wolves were awarded a penalty and on the second tackle stand off Junior Westwood kicked to the corner and full back Lachlan Webster, now being employed on the wing due to an injury to Charlie Walker, leapt highest to collect the ball and score wide out on the right to make the interval score 18-10 in NSW favour.
Two minutes into the second half Wolve substitute Ellis Livesey slipped a lovely ball to Irwin and he sliced through the defensive line before stepping back on his left foot and rounding the full back with ease on a forty metre run to score a fine individual try under the posts.
Irwin converted his own try but then nine minutes later NSW responded when Risati collected a high kick ten metres from his own line and raced ninety metres to score at the left of the posts. Bloomfield added the conversion.
A superb 20/40 by Irwin gave the Wolves possession inside the NSW half.
After a couple of strong drives from second row Daniel Coop and Livesey got them within twenty metres and Irwin found substitute Tommy Rhodes who slipped a beautiful short ball to second row Oliver Bishop who powered through a gap and stepped round Risati to score under the posts.
Irwin converted but then NSW prop forward Kodi Roberts crashed over from close range to score at the side of the posts. Bloomfield added the conversion.
The young Wolves refused to lie down and back they came as Rhodes and Irwin combined to find Regan and his lovely long ball found Webster on the wing and he scored wide out on the right.
Irwin converted superbly from the touchline to reduce the deficit to just two points.
Once again and then with two minutes remaining Irwin was tackled late twenty metres out and he managed to dust himself down to coolly land the resulting penalty to level matters and that is the way the game finished with both sets of players deserving great credit for their part in an enthralling 30-30 draw.
After the game Wolves Head of Youth Ryan O’Brien said, “I have no doubt in my mind that the New South Wales team had a number of future NRL, State of Origin and International stars, and for our lads to merely compete with them makes us unbelievably proud as staff.
“The first ten minutes of the game was incredibly intense and we managed to come out of that period with the first try. We then learnt the harsh reality of playing against extremely talented, athletic and clinical players when New South Wales scored four back-to-back tries following our errors and misreads.
“This group just refuse to give in, though, and they managed to claw their way back in the game to take it down to the wire and come away with a draw.”
NSW
Talen Risati, Kaiyan Barclay, Jeziah Papa, Braith Sloane, Cyrus Bloomfield, Cooper Votano, Carter Mareko, Benjamin Kaberry, Ashton Large, Kodi Roberts, Jett Flatley, Geordan Amaiu, Siotame Haven Jnr.
Subs: Lynton Close, Michael Nauer, Cooper Townsend, Mason Andrews, Karl Turner.
Tries : Votano (16 mins), Bloomfield (19, 25), Nauer (28), Risati (46), Roberts (55).
Goals : Risati 0 from 3, Bloomfield 3 from 3
WOLVES
Lachlan Webster, James Duffy, Charlie Walker, Alfie Poles, Cameron Cooper, Junior Westwood, Ewan Irwin, Charlie McKler, Lucas Mulqueeney, Kian Stanton, Daniel Coop, Oliver Bishop, Daniel Regan.
Subs: Oliver Morgan, Daniel Hackney, Isaac Holdsworth, Ellis Livesey, Tommy Rhodes.
Tries : Mulqueeney (10 mins), Webster (35, 62), Irwin (37), Bishop (51).
Goals : Irwin 5 from 6
Referee: Luke Donovan (NSW).
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