SAINTS fielded their strongest Reserves side of the season so far and were rewarded with their biggest win of the season, writes Graham Henthorne.
Seven tries in each half made for a massive 76-20 victory but the most pleasing aspect of the performance for Coach Ian Talbot was that the players, for the most part, performed to the best of their ability.
The match was probably over as a contest as early as the seventh minute as Travis Burns converted the third of the Saints tries to open an eighteen point lead. And it really was like shelling peas as the Saints ripped the paper thin Wire defence to shreds.
Calvin Wellington scored two of his eventual hat-trick of tries in this period. The first came from a delightful pass from Jordan Turner who committed the defender before feeding Wellington who stepped inside to score.
His second came from a Jonah Cunningham dart out from dummy half, he passed it on to Turner who this time dummied his way through to put Wellington in at the corner.
Sandwiched in between Matty Fleming marked his return from injury with a great try from deep. From the kick off three drives had taken the Saints to the 20 metre line but on the fourth quick hands spun the ball right. Andre Savelio and Fleming put Jake Spedding away and he outstripped his more illustrious opposite number and ex-Saint Corey Lee over 50 metres. His inside ball found Savelio again who tipped it back outside for Fleming to go over.
Savelio and Turner again did the damage for Saints fourth try allowing Tom Connick to offload out of the tackle to give Ricky Bailey the chance to take three over with him.
As the points started to flow at will the Saints began to lose a little focus allowing the visitors to score.
This jolted the Saints back into gear as Fleming scored his second after Ross McCauley and Savelio were held short.
The Wolves were finding it difficult to hold McCauley and it was his break and offload down the middle of the park which led to the Saints sixth try. Tom Connick it was who took play on before Grace was eventually stopped short. On the last Burns’ grubber was seized upon by Dave Llewellyn for his first try in the red vee.
From the kick off a Burns 40/20 gave the Saints great field position to allow Aaron Smith to barge his way over.
There was just time before the break for a questionable forward pass decision to rob us of the site of big Ross lumbering his way 60 metres downfield before splattering the full back out of the way on his way to score.
A point a minute in the first half looked as if it was going to be upheld in the second as the Saints scored three times in the opening 15 minutes. Turner scored a well-deserved try of his own as he stretched out to score before two Tommi Hughes scores. The first he burst onto a ball 20 metres out at pace to score, the second came courtesy of a Turner break.
A one on one strip from debutant trialist prop Tom Whittle allowed Cunningham to jump out of dummy half and put Jack Ashworth in at the right corner.
Hughes completed his hat-trick inside 13 minutes with a spectacular 70 metre run to the line. Tom Connick sold an outrageous dummy to allow himself through unopposed and Wellington dove into the corner to complete his hat-trick after yet another Hughes run.
There was just enough time left for the Wolves to have the final say in the result with a try in the left corner.
In truth this was too easy all round. The visitors couldn’t handle the power of Savelio and McCauley and had no answer for the speed both of thought and action of the rest of the team.
The Saints did very well to manage the expectations of the fans on seeing the team. They could so easily have found it difficult to motivate themselves but despite a few uncalled for errors the Saints dominated their nearest rivals in every department.
This should give the club all the impetus needed to keep the 100% record intact when they visit their oldest rivals in a fortnight.
The club would like to thank the Wolves for fulfilling the fixture and sending what was a clearly depleted team over to Langtree Park.
We understand, with injuries, that this can happen at the Reserve level and the tables could be turned at any point in the future. The players who appeared for Warrington were a credit to the club and we thank them for taking part in the fixture.
Match Summary:
Saints:
Tries: Calvin Wellington (2, 7 & 75), Matty Fleming (4 & 27), Ricky Bailey (15), Dave Llewellyn (33), Aaron Smith (35), Jordan Turner (47), Tommi Hughes (52, 55 & 63), Jack Ashworth (60), Tom Connick (71).
Goals: Travis Burns 9, Danny Richardson.
Warrington:
Tries: Charlie Phythian (21), Alex Whalley (39), David Thompson (57), Harvey Livett (80).
Goals: Harvey Livett 2.
Half Time: 40-10
Full Time: 76-20
Teams:
Saints:
1. Ricky Bailey; 2. Jake Spedding, 3. Matty Fleming, 4. Calvin Wellington, 5. Regan Grace; 6. Travis Burns, 15. Tom Connick; 20. Andre Savelio, 9. Jonah Cunningham, 10. Olly Davies, 11. Jack Ashworth, 12. Jordan Turner, 13. Lewis Charnock.
Subs: 7. Danny Richardson, 8. Levy Nzoungou, 14. Aaron Smith, 16. Tommi Hughes, 17. Dave Llewellyn, 18. Tom Whittle, 19. Ross McCauley.
Warrington:
1. Declan Kay; 2. David Thompson, 3. Richard Harris, 4. Charlie Phythian, 5. Corey Lee; 6. Harvey Livett, 7. Tyler Whittaker; 8. Daniel Murray, 9. Sean Kenny, 10. Andy Philbin, 11. Danny Rasool, 12. Jacque Peet, 19. Joe Ryan.
Subs: 14. Alex Whalley, 15. Jack Francis, 16. James Dandy, 17. Pat Moran.
