Round 7
Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 30 d. Warrington Wolves 24

2007 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: engage English Super League

Round 7 Super League Summary
Wed March 28, 2007
Round 7 of the engage Super League provided us with plenty more of the unpredictable, thrills and skills that we've come to expect from this season.

There were three games played on Friday evening, the first of which saw Wigan travelling to the KC stadium to take on Hull FC. Hull's miserable season had improved dramatically after a hugely impressive performance last week against St Helens, to claim their first win of the season. It was Wigan, however, who came away with the two points after putting in an equally impressive performance to claim a 20-30 victory. Trent Barrett scored two tries for the Warriors, who moved into the play off positions for the first time this year. Wigan boss, Brian Noble, believes that Barrett is, "Going to be big for us" whilst Hull 's Peter Sharp described his teams performance as, "A pile of rubbish to tell you the truth".

St Helens got their season back on track after a routine victory against the other side of Hull at Knowsley Road. Saints' Captain Paul Sculthorpe scored a try and kicked four goals in his side's 42-14 win. He claimed the Man of the Match award as he continues his recovery from a persistent knee injury. Hull KR were without influential captain James Webster for the clash and coach Justin Morgan, was satisfied with his team's performance saying, "I'm proud of their effort and our attitude was good."

Friday night's other game saw Leeds run out 28-16 victors against Harlequins at Headingly. Harlequin's will think of themselves as unlucky after two of Leeds' tries came from deflections and another from a blatant forward pass. Tony Smith, who signed up to become the new, full time Great Britain coach on Monday, hailed new signing Brent Webb's impact on the game after he scoring two tries.

There were no games on Saturday, due to football and cricket, so Sunday saw three games. League leaders Bradford, were at home to the Catalan Dragons, however they found themselves on the wrong end of a 22-29 defeat. The Dragons came out all guns blazing to establish a 0-10 lead through tries from Casey McGuire and Stacy Jones. The Bulls came back into it, however the Dragon's defence laid the platform for them to claim only their third ever away victory. Catalan's coach Mick Potter said, " I'm very happy" about the result whilst Bradford Coach, Steve McNamara said that his team were, "poor and thoroughly disappointed with our performance."

Huddersfield again failed to claim a point from their home game against struggling Salford as they slumped to a 16-18 defeat. The Giant's seventh straight loss leaves them 5 points adrift, despite only having a 30 point negative point's difference. Luke Robinson scored a brace of tries to help Salford to their only their second victory of the season.

Wakefield coach, John Kear, described his team's 30-24 victory over Warrington as a, "Great advert for Rugby League". Kear was delighted with his team's guts after they recovered from falling 16-24 behind in a thrilling game at Belle Vue. The victory lifts Wakefield into second place on the table and reinforces their status as this years surprise package. Warrington coach, Paul Cullen blamed his side's composure for the loss saying, "there was enough effort and enough skill, but not enough composure."

The Super League takes a break next week to make room for the fourth round of the Challenge Cup.


Wildcats continue remarkable rise
Mon March 26, 2007
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats' remarkable rise continued apace after they produced a performance rich in skill, grit and endeavour to overcome Warrington Wolves and climb joint top of the engage Super League.

An exhilaratingly high-tempo encounter saw John Kear's men outscore the visitors by six tries to four and further enhance their status as the surprise package of engage Super League XII.

It was a special day for Trinity winger Waine Pryce, who scored a crucial second-half try on his first start for the club since joining from relegated Castleford during the close-season.

But this was an outstanding team effort which made a further mockery of the Wildcats' pre-season status as relegation candidates.

Wakefield raced into a 10-0 lead inside the opening 10 minutes and their early inspiration came from their irrepressible stand-off Jamie Rooney.

He put the Wolves on the back foot inside the second minute with a delightful 40-20 kick.

That gave Trinity the field position to open the scoring barely 60 seconds later when Olivier Elima sent Peter Fox over in the right corner.

Rooney added the extras with an excellent conversion from near the touchline and in the 10th minute it got better for Wakefield as Ben Jeffries' teasing grubber kick was grounded by Ryan Atkins in the left corner.

Rooney failed to convert before Warrington began to force their way into the game.

Their talismanic skipper, Lee Briers, was sorely missed but the Wolves nevertheless began to build up a head of steam as the half progressed.

And with Chris Bridge beginning to exert a greater influence on proceedings from stand-off, it came as no surprise when Warrington claimed their first try midway through the opening period.

Replacement Paul Wood was on hand to touch the ball down and, after video referee Ben Thaler gave the first of several tries which he was required to review, Bridge landed the first of his four successful conversions to reduce the deficit to four points.

Trinity are made of stern stuff these days, however, and after Kevin Henderson's 'try' was ruled out for a forward pass from Jeffries, they registered their third score of the evening.

A mistake from Warrington's Rob Parker was seized on by Jason Demetriou, who collected possession and sent Paul March clear for a try converted by Rooney.

That looked to have given Wakefield a healthy interval advantage but a dreadful mistake from Brett Ferres allowed Warrington right back into it on the stroke of half-time.

The Trinity loose forward allowed Bridge to wrest the ball from his grasp and feed Kiwi wing Henry Fa'afili, who did the rest.

Bridge added the goal to cut the gap to four points again and it was the visitors who came out the stronger after the break.

Accordingly, they claimed their third try five minutes after the restart when Bridge showed brute strength to touch down and then Martin Gleeson sent Jon Clarke clear from 60 metres to touch down.

Bridge converted both scores to put Warrington 24-16 ahead but Wakefield produced a barnstorming response to overturn the visitors' lead.

First Pryce crossed in the left corner from Atkins' hack forward and then Jeffries waltzed through a hideously undermanned Wolves backline to touch down.

Wakefield continued to probe and in the 65th minute Tevita Leo-Latu further exposed weaknesses in the visitors' defence when he scampered clear.

With Rooney off the pitch, Jeffries kicked for goal but missed and then Pryce had another try ruled out after yet another decision went to the video referee.

It did not matter as their six tries and Rooney's three previous conversions meant victory was all Wakefield's.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: (16) 30
Tries: Fox, Atkins, P. March, Pryce, Jeffries, Latu.
Goals: Rooney 3.

Warrington Wolves: (12) 24
Tries: Wood, Fa'afili, Bridge, Clarke.
Goals: Bridge 4.

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats: Blaymire, Fox, Demetriou, Atkins, Pryce, Rooney, Jeffries, Watene, Latu, Moore, Elima, MacGillivray, Ferres.
Replacements: Catic, P. March, Henderson, Golden.

Warrington Wolves: Reardon, Fa'afili, Mark Gleeson, Johnson, Grose, Bridge, Clarke, Leikvoll, Martin Gleeson, Rauhihi, Wainwright, Westwood, Anderson.
Replacements: Parker, Wood, Sullivan, Barnett.

Referee: S Ganson (St Helens)
Attendance: 6,119

Report source: www.superleague.co.uk

Article: Kear delighted by rapid rise

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