A FIFTEEN minute period either side of half time saw the Reserves lose out to Warrington 16-14 in a game they otherwise dominated writes Graham Henthorne.
But the real story was again one of missed chances which cost the Saints dear.
The Saints opened with a vigour which has been lacking too often in the season and pushed the visitors back forcing them to kick from deep.
With Jordan Hand and Anthony Walker leading from the front the Saints had the upper hand and were rewarded with the opening score.
The Wolves knocked on in their own half and from the scrum just tipped the ball into touch as the Saints broke down the short side. From the second scrum Matty Ashurst was stopped inches short but as the ball was moved left Danny Yates put Andrew Dixon clean through to the line.
Good aggressive defence, this time from Alex Trumper, harrying the kicker forced another error and four tackles later Tommy Johnson banged over his second conversion of the afternoon this time for a high shot.
Had Dan Brotherton managed to convert his 80 metre run minutes earlier into a score instead of being run into touch, the Saints would have been further ahead.
As it was the Wolves took advantage of a tiring Saints side knocking on and gifting them possession with two converted tries. The second coming after Joe Greenwood and Danny Yates had crafted a half chance for sub Marcus Baines.
A poor start to the second half saw the visitor’s score what was ultimately the winning try as the Saints were caught out wide.
On the next set a Yates bomb was dropped on his own line by the Wolves winger but he still had the presence of mind to keep Brotherton out. From the play the ball Joe Greenwood had the ball 5 metres out but chose not to dive at the line, was held up and the chance was gone.
Quick play the balls from the returning Aaron Lloyd out to Nathan Ashe gave the space for him to find Tommy Johnson on the inside. The full back took it on to his opposite number before feeding Matty Ashurst to go over at the posts.
The momentum was with the Saints but despite try as hard as they did they couldn’t muster another score.
Despite lacking any sort of last tackle option, this was one of the better performances of the year which only goes to show where the Reserves could have been had they played this way more often.
Match Summary:
Saints:
Tries: Andrew Dixon, Matty Ashurst.
Goals: Tommy Johnson 3.
Warrington:
Tries: Chris Riley, Jack Cooper, Ryan Shaw.
Goals: Ryan Shaw 2.
HT: 8-12
FT: 14-16
Teams:
Saints:
1. Tommy Johnson; 2. James Hill, 3. Josh Jones, 4. Alex Trumper, 5. Dan Brotherton; 6. Nathan Ashe, 7. Danny Yates; 8. Jordan Hand, 9. Aaron Lloyd, 10. Anthony Walker, 11. Andrew Dixon, 12. Scott Hale, 13. Matty Ashurst.
Subs: 14. Marcus Baines, 15. Joe Greenwood, 16. Gareth Frodsham, 17. Carl Forster.
Warrington:
1. Chris Riley; 5. Chris Fleming, 4. Ben Hellewell, 6. Ryan Shaw, 2. Rhys Williams; 3. James Mendieka, 7. Jordan Burke; 8. Glenn Riley, 28. Gavin Williams, 10. Jack Cooper, 11. Ben Curry, 12. James Laithwaite, 13. Andrew Finn.
Subs: 9. Liam Hulme, 15. Brad Dwyer, 20. James Saltonstall, 17. Brooke Broughton.
