WARRINGTON 19 – 10 ASPULL

The visitors gave Warrington an early scare sending the ball wide to the winger from the starting kick. His kick and chase against Warrington’s flier Luke Turner was a very close thing but fortunately the ball went dead and Warrington were awarded the scrum back where the kick was made. Although Warrington won the scrum, they were almost immediately penalised for playing the ball when on the floor and Aspull slotted an easy penalty from 30 metres out. 0-3.

A magnificent catch of the restart kick by winger Ryan Eastwood took play deep into Aspull territory where Warrington camped for the next ten minutes. Under this pressure Aspull conceded penalties which the accurate boot of stand-off Luke Little converted in territorial gain and line outs for Warrington. With back rower Will Morgan providing solid possession from this platform, Warrington’s threats to the Aspull line included a 20 metre driving maul but no points. Indeed, it was Aspull who scored next, sending their left winger away round the Warrington defence with some well-timed passing to touch down under the posts. 0-10.

On 20 minutes, however, the combination of Little’s touch kicking and Morgan’s line out possession brought just rewards when Morgan finally touched down rounding off some forward drives by a rumbustious Warrington pack. 5-10.

Although Warrington were winning the territorial game, they did not look after the ball and too often spilled the ball going into the tackle or were stripped of possession. Aspull took advantage of these errors and, countering, sent their speedy left winger away who was just edged into touch with a try-saving tackle by winger Jack Rigby.

Fortunately, Warrington were beginning to get the edge in the set scrums pushing Aspull back to regain possession or denying Aspull any steady base for attack. Having previously taken the pitch in a back row capacity, an impressive Jack Leetham, a recent recruit, joined Sam Bennett and Alex Rowan for his front row debut, laying the foundation for Warrington’s success in this vital aspect of the game.

HT 5-10

Still 5 points adrift at the interval, Warrington returned to the attack and a half break by centre Kyle Cherrett opened a scoring opportunity for Warrington. However, as captain Josh Downes seemed about to bustle over the try line in his inimitable manner, the referee stopped the game to attend to two head injuries left in Cherrett’s wake. Warrington won the restart scrum and Downes finally did cross the whitewash. Little converted to give Warrington a narrow lead with 20 minutes to go. 12-10.

A hectic last quarter saw play swing from end to end. A dropped ball was hacked up to the Warrington line but Warrington’s growing dominance in the set piece got them out of trouble when they were under pressure. A series of exemplary pick and goes took Warrington the length of the field only for them to be penalised 5 metres short of the Aspull line. A well weighted grubber kick from Little, and a good chase from Rigby and full back Andy Almond, was just scrambled into touch by the visitors.

With less than 10 minutes to go, a barreling, bruising 40 metre run from Cherrett brought the play up to the Aspull 5 metre line where Warrington earned a scrum. A neat pass from No8 Downes found stand-off Little taking a beautiful line clean through the Warrington defence to score under the posts. Conversion of his own try put the game beyond doubt.

FT 19-10

Report by Roy Potts WRUFC