Warrington's Box of Tricks Too Much for Glossop

Warrington’s third team showed all the tricks from their seemingly bottomless box of talents in totally demolishing Glossop on a wet and windy afternoon at Walton Lea Road. In a one-sided game, Glossop had no answer to the bullocking runs of Jon Bennett, John Morris and Paul Thompson, the pin-point kicking of Matt Drinkwater, the incisive centre play of Tony Fretwell and the intelligent distribution of Sean McDermott.

It was a Drinkwater kick to the corner which set up the first try, as Paul Thompson burrowed over from the ensuing ruck. Drinkwater converted. Number 8 Jonathan Hughes then showed his exceptional pace with a 60 yard break to set up good position ten yards out. Warrington pressure eventually forced a penalty, which was quickly taken by livewire scrumhalf, Tom Hockenhull. The ball found its way into the safe hands of Tony Fretwell and the powerful centre sidestepped one man before drifting over. Drinkwater converted from near the touchline.

Good driving runs from Bennett and Thompson then set up a well-taken try for Drinkwater, who also added the extras, before a comedy of errors in the Glossop 10 yard area was exploited by the alert Hockenhull, whose try was converted by Drinkwater.

Warrington managed two more tries before half time, first from Matt Drinkwater, who made the initial break before taking the scoring pass from Tony Fretwell and then from Jon Hughes, following a superb offload from Paul MacKay.

With the game already won, Warrington took their collective foot off the gas in the second half, scoring just four unconverted tries. First Kyle Carted scooted over on the left wing, after picking up a loose offload. Jonathan Hughes then added two more tries to his first half effort before Warrington completed their account when Dick Kirby swept over from 60 yards. Ironically, Glossop had the last word when they scored an excellent try, featuring two powerful hand-offs, to escape the humiliation of a “nilling”.

“We were really on fire today,” enthused skipper Sean McDermott, “Our forwards took control up front and our backs used the possession, territory and space to maximum advantage. It was also good to see a number of players returning after injury, even though Jayesh Kerai ended up playing for the opposition.”