5th Round
St Helens 40 d. Warrington Wolves 34

2008 Challenge Cup Index [Draw] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: Challenge Cup

Saints down Wolves
Tue May 13, 2008
Source: www.therfl.co.uk

St Helens remain on course for a third successive Carnegie Challenge Cup after victory over local rivals Warrington Wolves by 40-34 in a gripping fifth-round tie.

The holders produced a carbon copy of their 30-22 victory at Warrington a fortnight earlier by coming from behind three times to complete a third derby win of the season at the re-named GPW Recruitment Stadium.

If the Wolves were hoping a change of name would bring them a change of fortune they were sadly mistaken, for little went right for them all day.

Already without hooker Jon Clarke through suspension, they lost his Great Britain team-mate Martin Gleeson to illness before kick-off and full-back Stuart Reardon hobbled off just six minutes into the match.

The desperately unfortunate visitors also lost Gleeson's replacement Paul Johnson and makeshift full-back Chris Riley through injury and were out on their feet at the end of a gruelling match.

Yet they battled in the face of adversity to give themselves a great chance of claiming their first win at the home of their neighbours for 14 years and scored the try of the match, a length-of-the-field effort from speedy winger Kevin Penny.

Wolves skipper Adrian Morley celebrated his 31st birthday by crashing over for the first of 13 tries and Chris Hicks kicked a conversion and penalty to give his side an 8-0 lead after 16 minutes.

Had Saints winger Ade Gardner not knocked down a pass intended for an unmarked Penny, the visitors might have been further in front but Saints struck with two tries in four minutes to take the lead.

Half-backs Leon Pryce and Sean Long worked the ball smartly across the pitch for centre Willie Talau to breeze past Lee Briers and touch down for the first of his two tries, and then second-rower Chris Flannery took Paul Wellens' neat offload to race in for a try.

Warrington briefly regained the advantage when the magnificent Johnson superbly passed out of a two-man tackle to get Hicks over for a try, to which he added a touchline conversion.

But the holders struck what appeared to be the decisive blow four minutes before the break when left winger Francis Meli, who had earlier been denied a try for obstruction, took advantage of a suspiciously forward-looking pass from Wellens to grab a third try.

Warrington knew their luck was out when Long's conversion went in off an upright but they drew level four minutes into the second half when Johnson once more produced his sleight of hand to get Hicks over for his second try.

Six minutes later right winger Gardner took Pryce's long pass to cross for Saints' fourth try, but still Warrington were not finished and they hit back with Penny's 100-metre special and Hicks' touchline goal made it 24-22.

The visitors declined a chance to kick a penalty in front of the posts and Johnson dropped a pass in a great position before succumbing to Warrington's injury curse when he hobbled off on 66 minutes.

Saints needed no second invitation to plunder the win and they pulled away with the aid of a three-try burst in six minutes.

Talau took Pryce's inside pass to go over for his second, substitute Paul Clough took full advantage of a handling error from Penny to claim a soft try and Lee Gilmour touched down after a mazy run, with Long taking his goal tally to six.

Warrington at least had the consolation of ending on a high, with second-rower Ben Westwood and substitute Simon Grix scoring late tries.

Report Source: www.therfl.co.uk

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