Warrington Still On Track For League and Cup Double

With promotion now firmly tucked under their belt, Warrington’s third string can now look forward to the prospect of a Cup and League double with this narrow, but deserved, win over Firwood Waterloo. This was a game in which the lead changed hands five times and, in the end, just like the Duke of Wellington’s victory in the eponymous battle of 1815, it proved to be a “damn close run thing” on the fields of Waterloo.

Warrington opened their account after five minutes when Mark Tickle pounced on a scrappy clearance from a line out and touched down. Matt Drinkwater added the extras. The Waterloo pack then started to exert pressure and this was rewarded when they scored from a driving maul. The try was converted and the home side scored again from the restart when poor Warrington tackling gifted them a try in the corner.

Waterloo were very much on top at this stage, showing remarkable resilience for a side which had been unable to fulfill its league fixture the previous weekend. However, Warrington soon returned to the attack and kicked a penalty when Waterloo were penalized for unfairly killing the ball five yards out. The home side bounced back, first with a penalty and then with a converted try from their pack. But on the stroke of half time, Warrington cut the deficit, when Jon Bennett, showing unaccustomed alertness for a prop, took a quick tap penalty and bundled over from ten yards. Matt Drinkwater kicked the conversion from near the touchline and Warrington turned round just five points adrift.

The second half saw Warrington start to find their normal game. They ruled the breakdowns and their set scrummage steadily gained the upper hand, while Jon Hughes showed all his athleticism to rule the line-outs. Eventually, the scores came. First, Charlie McIlroy seemed to have totally messed up a clearance kick from his 22 but the full back followed up his mistake and then pounced on a Waterloo misfield and sprinted over under the posts to allow a simple conversion. Warrington’s backs then combined superbly and scrum half Ben Hockenhull was on hand to exploit clean ball from a ruck and strolled over. Again Drinkwater converted.

Warrington were now nine points ahead but, with twenty minutes to go, they were reduced to 14 men and, although they defended heroically, their line was eventually breached when Chris White uncharacteristically spilled the ball on his five yard line and Waterloo powered over and kicked the conversion.

The home side then regained the lead in bizarre fashion when an attempted penalty kick fell short and their left centre picked up the ball and touched down. The conversion gave the lead back to Waterloo. But the battle was still to be won and won it was when good back play gave deceptively quick Jon Hughes some space and he handed onto the lightening quick Mark Tickle who scored in the corner. Matt Drinkwater converted magnificently from the touchline to make the score 38-36. Waterloo had a late chance to win but the penalty attempt was well wide.

“This was the icing on the cake of our excellent season,” said skipper Shaun McDermott. “We now have a final to play in the BEST Bowl on 3rd of May and that really would be the cherry on top.”