Warrington 22-6 Widnes: Wolves grind out derby win over Vikings
By PA Sport
Last Updated: 01/08/17 8:29pm
Warrington produced a strong second-half display to claim a 22-6 derby victory over Widnes at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Warrington trailed 6-4 at half-time against their local rivals but Matty Russell's double and further tries from Kevin Brown and Peta Hiku saw the Wolves finish the regular season with a third straight win.
With both sides already consigned to the Qualifiers, the result had little consequence to the final standings. The next time these rivals meet the stakes will be much higher as they will be scrapping for their Super League lives.
But with the Wolves winning both Super League encounters and also successful in a Challenge Cup tie, they will go into that game with greater confidence.
Joe Mellor's excellent efforts for the Vikings were rewarded with a 15th-minute first-half try which Stefan Marsh converted but that was their only score of the night.
It was a nightmare start for the visitors when prop Gil Dudson lost the ball in the very first tackle of the game and the Wolves took full advantage as Brown's pass gave Russell the space to scramble over in the corner for the opening try.
The Wolves were very much on top in the opening stages and Tom Lineham had a try ruled out for offside by the video referee as they looked to add to their early lead.
But on their first real period of attacking play deep in the Wolves half the Vikings came up with a superb solo try from Mellor, who skipped his way through some weak Warrington defence from 20 metres out to score and Marsh converted to give the visitors a 6-4 advantage.
Mellor's try proved to be the last score of the first half as some excellent Widnes defence kept their line intact with Corey Thompson pulling off a try-saving tackle on Ryan Atkins and Marsh keeping cool to deal with a Hiku kick behind his own line under pressure from Russell.
The home side were given an injury scare on the half hour when Ben Currie went to ground clutching his knee in just his second game back after a 10-month absence, but the forward was given the all-clear to carry on after lengthy treatment.
Currie showed all was well when he came up with a try-saving tackle minutes before the break on winger Tom Armstrong to keep the score at 6-4 at half-time.
However, Currie failed to return for the second half as a precautionary measure by the Wolves with more important challenges ahead.
The start of the second half followed a similar pattern with plenty of effort but little in the way of quality from both sides until three tries in a 10-minute spell from the home side sealed the game.
The Wolves regained the lead on 52 minutes when Hiku outjumped Charly Runciman to claim Declan Patton's crossfield kick and score his first try for the club.
Six minutes later another clever reverse kick by Patton allowed Brown to touch down under the posts against his former club and with Stefan Ratchford landing both conversions the Wolves took a 16-6 lead.
Russell then claimed his second try of the night when he was on the end of a crisp handling movement to again finish well in the corner and Ratchford converted to seal the win.
