Super League: Stefan Ratchford stars as Warrington down Salford
Last Updated: 12/02/15 11:03am
Warrington Wolves made the perfect start to their 2015 First Utility Super League campaign with a 22-8 victory over Salford Red Devils at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
Former Salford star Stefan Ratchford set up the opening try for former Red Devils team-mate Richie Myler, saved two others with superb tackles and also booted three goals from four attempts.
Fijian prop Ashton Sims, meanwhile, showed he is going to be a fans' favourite in Super League with a storming display on his Warrington debut.
The Wolves led 12-0 at the break and their other touchdowns came from Mickey Higham, Ryan Atkins and Rhys Evans, while the Red Devils could only reply with two debut tries from Ben Jones-Bishop.
Salford forward Adam Walne and Warrington's Ben Westwood were both sin-binned in separate incidents.
Warrington took the lead with Ratchford breaking clear from Chris Hill's smart pass to send Myler scampering over.
Ratchford tagged on the straightforward conversion and Salford paid a heavy price for Walne's high tackle on Higham.
Substitute Higham recovered sufficiently to burrow over after Roy Asotasi was stopped short to make it 12-0 after 30 minutes.
Held out
Salford managed to hold out while Walne was in the sin-bin and Rangi Chase worked his magic to almost bring his side their opening try.
Westwood was fortunate to receive only a yellow card for flattening Walne with a high tackle after 50 minutes.
The Wolves were down to 12 men when Atkins bagged their third try from Gareth O'Brien's neat grubber-kick to stretch the advantage to 18-0 with Ratchford's third conversion.
Warrington finally conceded their first try after 218 minutes this season when Jones-Bishop went over in the corner just before the hour.
The Wolves brought on former St Helens half-back Gary Wheeler for his debut off the bench and they sealed victory 10 minutes from time with Evans going over in the corner from Monaghan's pass.
Salford made the scoreline more respectable with Jones-Bishop's second try two minutes from time.
