A commanding opening quarter from Warrington proved to be the difference as they strengthened their position in Super League’s top four with a narrow victory at Wakefield.
Wigan and St Helens, the top two teams so far this season, have lost at Wakefield this year but there looked to be little chance of Warrington joining them after a resounding opening. Trinity ultimately outscored the Wolves by five tries to four, including two in the final three minutes which reduced Warrington’s lead to two and set up a dramatic final few moments, but the visitors held on.
“The score didn’t indicate the value of the game,” the Warrington head coach, Steve Price, said. “We were always in control.”
Wakefield would have cut the gap to the play-off places to four points with a game in hand had they won and their coach, Chris Chester, said: “We’ve shown again we can match it with the best but it’s two points lost.”
Trinity’s catch-up fixture against Widnes next Sunday now appears key to their hopes of keeping a play-off push alive.
Warrington led 20-0 in almost as many minutes after tries for Tom Lineham and a double from Stefan Ratchford – who again made a strong case to be England’s full‑back against New Zealand on Saturday – coupled with four goals from Harvey Livett.
Wakefield battled valiantly to respond to Warrington’s storming start, though: Tinirau Arona reduced the deficit before Kyle Wood scored twice in three minutes in the moments after half-time. But penalties from the boot of Livett and then Bryson Goodwin always kept the visitors in control.
Their dominance was underlined with Kevin Brown’s try 15 minutes from time which made it 32-18. Tom Johnstone and Pauli Pauli in the final moments gave Wakefield a glimmer of a comeback win but such a scenario would have been harsh on Warrington.
At Castleford, meanwhile, Hull KR came from 14-0 down to draw 24-24 with the home side. Jy Hitchcox scored four tries but Rovers ran in two in the last 12 minutes to draw level and the game ended even.
