James Lowes' Wolves side earns vital victory in his first game in charge

Jun 9 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

CARETAKER coach James Lowes hopes he has given the Warrington paymasters a nudge after his Wolves side earned a vital victory on the road in his first game in charge.

A see-saw 40-24 win at play-off rivals Harlequins ended a dismal run of form for the Wolves and saw them re-establish their play-off credentials.

Lowes said: “Everything is still up in the air regarding the job and I don’t really know what’s going to happen.

“I will just keep my head down, keep working and enjoy it while it lasts.

“It was nice to win and it was great to see the players with a bit of confidence.”

The Wolves ran in seven tries as they put the Londoners to the sword, and Lowes was happy to see the work he had put in pay off.

He added: “We produced the stuff we have worked on in training and that is great.

“It has been a tough couple of weeks for everybody and we are not kidding ourselves.

“We still have a lot of work to do but it was fantastic to see the boys playing with a smile on their face.”

Harlequins coach Brian McDermott slammed his defence after their horror show.

He said: “We are letting in too many easy tries at the moment.

“I would rather teams have to work hard to score against us but that wasn’t the case today.”

Despite the searing heat, both sides displayed their attacking intent early on with some great defence keeping the scoresheet blank.

After Will Sharp made a searing break for the home side, Henry Paul was held up inches short, then as the visitors struck back both Chris Melling and Danny Orr made try-saving tackles.

The Wolves took the lead after quarter of an hour when Jon Clarke made a clean break and the speedy Chris Riley scampered over, Chris Hicks converting.

Matt King could easily have extended the lead but knocked on with the line at his mercy, but Warrington doubled their lead moments later when Monaghan made a break and Louie Anderson was on hand to cross.

The home side were stunned into life and after Scott Hill and Melling showed great hands, Tony Clubb powered his way over, Rob Purdham adding the extras.

Then, right on the hooter, Quins drew level when Melling broke clear and, despite being held inches short, offloaded to Michael Worrincy, who dropped over the line.

But in a stunning 20-minute burst, Warrington appeared to have sewn the game up as they ran in four tries as Quins’ defence was torn to shreds.

After Martin Gleeson and Monaghan struck within seconds of each other, further tries from King and Clarke opened up a 24-point gap. But the London club made a game of it as Gareth Haggerty and Rikki Sheriffe crossed for late scores.

Riley scorched over for a final score right on the hooter to seal Wolves’ victory.