Shock defeat for Warrington Wolves

Dec 27 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

WARRINGTON Wolves suffered a shock defeat in their friendly encounter with National League One side Leigh Centurions at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The Super League side fielded a youthful line-up but did include established first teamers in captain Lee Briers, Kiwi prop Paul Rauhihi, Chris Bridge, Ben Westwood and Rob Parker.

A near-full strength Leigh outfit were good value for their victory with winger Dave Alstead grabbing a superb hat-trick of tries and second row forward Lee Doran touching down twice.

It looked promising for the Wolves youngsters early on and they opened the scoring after seven minutes as Briers and Ben Harrison combined to send Andy Bracek over and Briers converted.

But the rest of the half belonged to the visitors as they dominated their Super League rivals and scored four unanswered tries to build up a 22-6 half time lead.

Doran scored his first half double, while winger Steve Maden and hooker Aaron Smith also touched down with scrum half Ian Watson landing three first half conversions.

Alstead grabbed his first try three minutes after the restart, which Watson converted to increase the lead to 28-6, before Briers scored a fine individual try for the home side which he converted himself.

Alstead then showed his tremendous pace to touch down Dave McConnell’s kick and he completed his hat-trick five minutes from time with a superb 30 metre touchline dash, while Chris Riley’s last-minute try was a late consolation for the well beaten Wolves.

FORMER Widnes winger Damian Blanch made his mark for Wakefield with a brace of tries as the Wildcats ensured an inauspicious start for new Leeds coach Brian McClennan in the traditional Boxing Day friendly at Headingley.

McClennan, the former New Zealand Test boss who succeeded Tony Smith as the Rhinos boss after their Grand Final triumph in October, watched his youthful side go down 26-18 to an impressive Wakefield team, who had five of their close-season signings on show for the 10,143 crowd.

The Super League champions have no new faces to bolster their title-winning team but at least McClennan will be able to call on his seven Great Britain internationals when the serious business starts in a little over a month’s time.

The outcome of the match was determined by a purple patch from the visitors, who ran in three tries in a seven-minute spell in the first quarter to establish a 16-0 lead.

Hooker Sam Obst opened the scoring with a solo try after 12 minutes, Blanch superbly collected Danny Sculthorpe’s kick on the run to touch down for his first score and stand-off Scott Grix followed up a grubber from Danny Brough to score his side’s third try.

Leeds hit back with tries from young wingers Ryan Hall and Danny Williams.

But Wakefield finished the first half firmly in control thanks to a well-worked second try from Blanch, who finished strongly at the corner, and Brough kicked a third goal.

Leeds dominated for long periods of the second half but only had a short-range try from young prop Michael Haley to show for their efforts.

The Wildcats made sure of the win when centre Ryan Atkins won a kick and chase to notch his side’s fifth try but Leeds had the final say when Hall crossed.