Warrington Wolves 32-18 St Helens: Matty Ashton hat-trick helps Wolves get back to winning ways against local rivals | Rugby League News

Warrington Wolves got back to winning ways with a solid 32-18 victory over St Helens in round nine of Super League at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

It was the third meeting between the two outfits in six weeks, Warrington making it 3-0 in their favour after a win on St Helens turf in Super League then a Challenge Cup quarter-final success.

Warrington had a slender 16-14 lead at the half-time break, with neither side’s defending of the highest calibre, a try from Toby King and two converted Matty Ashton efforts bringing their points.

St Helens hit back through Jon Bennison and a Mark Percival double, Goerge Whitby converting the final of their three tries of the half to put the Saints within two points of the home outfit.

Despite St Helens’ late surge of points in the first 40, a second-half rally even without Marc Sneyd saw Warrington home, tries from Ashton – to complete his hat-trick – plus efforts from Rodrick Tai and Matt Dufty sealing the win, a late consolation by Bennison all that Saints could muster in the second half.

The result moves Wolves up to seventh in the Super League table on 10 points, behind St Helens and Leeds Rhinos on points difference. The lowest position in which they could end round nine is eighth, with seventh-placed Catalans Dragons facing eighth-placed Wakefield Trinity.

St Helens stay in fifth, with only Leeds Rhinos able to usurp them in round nine with a victory over Hull KR on Friday.

Warrington show steel to rally in second half

With both teams having a point to prove, the opening 10 minutes was a wrestle for control of the encounter, with both sets of forwards trying to get on top.

Warrington were the side to open the scoring on the 14th minute from a terrible St Helens error, a loose pass from Curtis Sironen right on Saints’ own line being knocked on by Alex Walmsley to gift King a try from the scrum to put the home outfit 4-0 up.

Sneyd then took control of the game and put Warrington in perfect position with a brilliant 40/20, his side going out to the left edge once again this time to send Ashton over, Sneyd adding the extras to put the Wolves 10-0 in the lead and leave St Helens with work to do.

Saints immediately hit back as the restart kick-off split Dufty and Tai before bouncing into touch, giving the visitors some territory. From that, they sent it out wide to Percival, who had moved over to Saints’ right edge, jamming in the defenders and sending a tip-on for Bennison to fly over and bring the game to 10-4.

It took just four minutes for Warrington to reinstate their advantage, Bennison unable to jump on the loose ball which allowed Ashton to race away, Sneyd converting to bring the score to 16-4 with 10 minutes left of the first 40.

The topsy-turvy game continued, though, as Percival showed his footwork to skip on the outside of King and dive over in the 32nd minute then barrel over in the 38th, Whitby converting the second to bring the game to 16-14 at the break.

Despite losing key man Sneyd to a failed HIA, Warrington started the second half in a similar fashion to the first, Ashton flying over in the corner for his hat-trick to give Warrington a 20-14 lead.

Both sides continued to chance their arm, with St Helens thinking they could have been awarded a penalty try but video referee Tom Grant chalking off what would have been Percival’s hat-trick as he had gone into touch.

More points then came for Warrington in the 63rd minute as Dufty managed to keep hold of possession and then float a pass out to Josh Thewlis, who hurtled down the wing and showed great vision to sling a pass inside to the supporting Tai, Thewlis adding the extras to put them 26-14 in front.

With Ashton then having to go off for an HIA, Warrington’s 18th man Ewan Irwin was granted his debut, Dufty then sent the Warrington crowd wild as he darted through the Saints defence, and Thewlis converted to bring the score to 32-18.

St Helens hit back through Bennison in the corner, but it was too little, too late as they were subjected to their 15th loss in a row against Super League’s top clubs.

Burgess: My proudest day as Warrington coach | Wellens: We did not respond well enough

Warrington Wolves head coach Sam Burgess speaking to Sky Sports:

“We had so much going against us and a lot of adversity to overcome. At half-time I didn’t think I had any players left. Sneyd fractured his eye socket.

“I’m lost for words because the players were so resilient tonight and made some real hard choices. That is my proudest day so far as a coach with this group.

“I don’t have to say too much [about my team’s character], it was there for everyone to see. We’re going to be sore, down on troops, but we kept going. It was a real powerful performance.”

St Helens head coach Paul Wellens speaking to Sky Sports:

“There is no getting away from it, we were poor in a number of areas. At the start we were ill-disciplined with the ball again and defensively we looked really disjointed at the egde.

“Warrington were missing some creative threats out there today but it didn’t seem to worry them because of the way we approached our defensive work. It’s really disappointing.

“We just didn’t stick to the task. We had a couple of decisions go against us, that happens, but we didn’t respond to them well enough.

“Frustration crept into the team. It’s honourable when people want to go and solve things, but they went on their own and, invariably, that leads to more confusion and disruption. It spiralled from there.”

Round 9

Thurs April 24: Warrington 32-18 St Helens
Fri April 25: Leeds vs Hull KR – 8pm
Sat April 26: Huddersfield vs Castleford – 3pm
Sat April 26: Salford vs Leigh – 5.30pm – exclusively live on Sky Sports
Sat April 26: Catalans vs Wakefield – 5.30pm
Sun April 27: Hull FC vs Wigan – 3pm

Sky Sports will again show every game of Super League live this season – including two matches in each round exclusively live, with the remaining four matches each week shown on Sky Sports+ via the red button.