Keswick 12 Warrington 6
Warrington’s season of woes continued with this loss to Keswick. Although they picked up a bonus losing point, Warrington have now changed places with their opponents and for the first time since they gained promotion they sit at the bottom of North 1 West.
It took sixty minutes for Warrington to find anything resembling their true form and, on a heavy pitch, Keswick continued to exploit an error-strewn Warrington performance. Eventually, pressure provided points and the Keswick backs used good possession from an attacking line-out to execute an excellent loop move which was clinically finished by the stand-off as he scythed over between the posts. The conversion gave the home side a 7 point lead. Warrington replied with penalty from Darren Norman and the sides turned round with Keswick 7-3 ahead.
Warrington began the second half which much more commitment, although handling errors still predominated as they tried to up their game. Ironically, it was the home side who scored next when they were awarded three consecutive penalties which took them from their own 22 to within striking distance of the Warrington line. They then drove the ball through their pack before their scrum half bustled over for an unconverted try.
The last ten minutes of the game finally saw Warrington in total control, even after Tom Arnold was sin-binned. Unfortunately, all they could manage was a second penalty from Darren Norman and a losing bonus point was their only reward from a game they should have won.
“Could do much better,” was the comment of coach, and teacher, Andy Roberts. “For much of the match today, I didn’t think we had got off the bus. Hopefully, we can shake this performance off before we meet Stockport next week.”