A Shay Martyn penalty goal 7 minutes from time gave the Saints a hard-fought win over the Warrington Wolves in humid energy sapping conditions on Saturday. Watch the highlights below.
The Saints welcomed Captain Lewis Baxter and Taylor Pemberton back into the fold, but were without lynchpin props Cole Appleby and George Delaney and gave debuts to Alfie Whittle and the hard-hitting Eliot Peposhi.
And Captain Baxter was at the heart of the Saints opening score. He shot out of the line forcing the same from his opposite number.
A penalty and two drives later and Ellis Archer stood up the defence before putting Rio Corkill in down the right.
A downpour of biblical proportions then ensued making handling precarious at best and that contributed to put the Wire fullback away down the Saints middle on his way to the line.
But the Saints hit straight back in bizarre circumstances. An innocuous hit from the kick off saw the ball dropped, picked up by Martyn who beat two to the left corner before hitting his second majestic touchline conversion.
On the half hour yet another home knock on in their own half was kicked ahead by Ellis Keppel. He hacked on again into the in goal but just as he pounced the ball was kicked dead and the chance lost.
On the stroke of the interval Martyn turned savior bundling his opposite number into touch to preserve the Saints lead.
The second half saw the Wolves squander a golden opportunity to go level as they spilled the ball over the Saints line with absolutely no-one within a country mile.
The Saints took full advantage again forcing the error with good defence before extending the lead. The ball was moved left to Reece Sumner 30 metres out. He pushed away from the cover, ran to the line, then 5 metres out he set himself to run through the fullback on his way over. Crucially Martyn was just wide with the extras.
The last quarter became a game of attrition. The home side took advantage of the Saints tiring numbers to score twice to level the scores with 15 minutes left.
But we’ve said it many times before that you should ‘never write off the Saints’ and after a powerful run and fight to win the play the ball from Man of the Match Sambou, Saints received a fresh set of six.
Two tackles later and Dan Ganson put the rampaging Kal Devine through 20 metres out. He was finally pulled down at the line gaining penalty for interference.
Martyn’s goal gave the Saints back the lead but with plenty of time left the Saints had to dig really deep working hard for each other to keep the home side out.
That we did.
Warrington Wolves U19’s: Luke Broadbent; James Hartill, Thomas Houghton-Burnett, Daniel Brewin, Joshua Hughes-Lynch; Lewis Hughes, Leon Hayes; Dean Beddall, Thomas Inman, Luke Thomas, Adam Holroyd, Jack Darbyshire, Morgan Burgess (C).
Interchanges: Denive Balmforth, Kieran Rennox, Oliver Simpson, David Mills, Jamie Reddicliffe, Ash Barnes, Aiden Doolan.
Tries: Luke Broadbent (19), Adam Holroyd (58), Lewis Hughes (66).
Goals: Leon Hayes 2 from 3.
St Helens U19’s: Daniel Moss; Jumah Sambou, Rio Corkill, Ellis Keppel, Shay Martyn; Ellis Archer, Daniel Ganson; Harry Brooks, Ethan Bradbury, Lewis Baxter (C), Alfie Pyke, Reece Sumner, Taylor Pemberton.
Interchanges: Owen Blackwood, Kalan Devine, Eliot Peposhi, Kallem Rodgers, Alfie Whittle, Alfie Pyke.
Tries: Rio Corkill (6), Shay Martyn (21), Reece Sumner (48).
Goals: Shay Martyn 3 from 4.
HT: 6-12
FT: 16-18
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