By Admin
LEEDS RHINOS u16s 30-14 WARRINGTON WOLVES u16s
Report by Steve Phillips
Another tough fixture following on from the St Helens matched was in store for the young Wolves side with a mid-week trip across the Pennies to face Leeds Rhinos.
Down on senior players the team knew that they’ll need to follow the game plan to the letter to stay in the match and while they never gave up the fight, they just weren’t able to stop Leeds and fell to their first defeat of the season.
Leeds scored first on seven minutes through Seru Qareqare after they were awarded a repeat set. The try was converted by Harry Smith, a lead they wouldn’t give up. This was extended five minutes later this time out wide with Harley Thomas crashing over. Warrington thought they were in on their left edge after good work moving the ball from one side of the field to the other stretching the Leeds defence, but Lachlan Webster was judged to have put a foot into touch before he dived over in the corner. Qareqare was over again in the 19th minute after racing in from 20 meters out. Both Leeds conversions were unsuccessful, but it was now 14-0 to the home side.
Warrington got themselves on the scoresheet through Deacon Connolly in the 24th minute. Warrington were awarded a penalty for interference at the play-the-ball. After kicking for touch, they started their attack on the Leeds 30m line. Again, they looked to move the larger Leeds team around to create an opening; firstly, attacking down their left edge before switching back inside.
Ewan Irwin took a pass 20m in front of the posts, he passed to Flynn Holden who had come into the attacking line from full back, he was able to step the onrushing Leeds centre before passing to Connolly. The Leeds defence was expecting him to head for the corner, but a great step back inside gave him the room to race in and dot down. The conversion was missed but Wolves had something to show for their hard work.
Warrington again had a good opportunity straight from the kick-off with Junior Westwood catching the ball on the full and then passing out to Charlie Walker to race well into the Leeds half. Wolves were unfortunately not able to take advantage and had to turn the ball over a few meters out from the Leeds line.
Leeds extended their lead with five minutes of the half left when Qareqare went in for his hattrick after what looked like a knock-on by Rhinos was deemed to have gone backwards. The conversion was again missed with the half finishing with no further points being added at 18-4 to Leeds Rhinos.
A frank but measured discussion at half-time to remind the Wolves players about the game plan seemed to help and they came out with renewed purpose. Lots of pressure and promise was shown by the young side, however they couldn’t add to their score. It was Leeds in-fact that extended their lead still further on 59 minutes through Dylan Hutchinson following an attack down Leeds right edge. Smith was on target with the extra points and the lead had moved out to 20 points.
Warrington’s persistence paid off after forcing a drop out and then getting a repeat set. Oliver Morgan jumped from dummy half and was able to off-load under pressure to Westwood; he moved the ball still further left for Oliver Bishop who straightened up and was dragged down a few meters from the line. Morgan was quickly in to play the ball down the blind-side with Westwood passing out to Walker, who flicked the pass quickly out to Webster as the Leeds winger had come in to deal with Walker, with Webster touching down in the corner. A difficult touch-line conversion was unsuccessful.
Wolves were starting to build some momentum in the game, but time was running out fast. With five minutes left, Warrington were able to reduce the lead down to only 10 points. After a chip-kick on the last, Leeds knocked-on giving the scrum to Wire 30 meters out. A couple of drives from Warrington were pushed back and they looked to have missed the opportunity; however, Westwood placed a perfect grubber kick through for the attackers. Bishop was able to beat the on-coming full back to the ball and then stepped back in-side to wrong foot the defence and run round to touch down between the posts. Holden was on target, and it was now 24-14 with just a few minutes left to play.
From the kick-off Warrington knew they needed to throw caution to the wind and tried to spread the ball on their own goal-line; unfortunately, the ploy didn’t work with Leeds regathering a loose pass. This allowed Joseph Butterfield to force his way over from a few meters out. Harley Thomas converted successfully with the referee blowing the whistle straight after the kick to bring the game to a conclusion with the home team finishing 30-14 winners.
Ryan O’Brien Head Coach had the following thoughts about the game: "It was another really competitive game that will have accelerated the development of our lads. We challenged them to play in a slightly different way than they have before and looked good in patches when we put it into practice. We learnt some harsh lessons, though, in the importance of controlling the speed of the ruck on both sides of the ball and the knock on effects this can have on other parts of the game, but it will no doubt stand the players in good stead and as coaches we’ll be guiding them to improve in that area."
WARRINGTON WOLVES
HOLDEN, Flynn; VAN OSSELAER, Rafael; CONNOLLY, Deacon; WALKER, Charlie; WEBSTER, Lachlan; IRWIN, Ewan; WESTWOOD, Junior; PEARCE, Ben; BULL, Jacob; EVANS, Oliver; JOHNSON, Kaden; BISHOP, Oliver; REGAN, Daniel
MORGAN, Oliver; BURN, Calum; RAMSDEN, Jake; TYRER, Lucas
Tries – Connolly, Webster, Bishop
Conversions – Holden (1)
LEEDS RHINOS
BUTTERFIELD, Joseph; CASSELL, Presley; COWLEY, Alexander; DISKIN, Joseph; FOX, Elliott; HARDY, Jacob; HUTCHINSON, Dylan; Irvine, Kai; JONES-BUCHANAN, Lore; LLOYD, Zak; MILLINGTON, Dax; OLADIPUPO, Jayemm; QAREQARE, Seru; ROBINSON BUTTERWORTH, Harvey; SMITH, Harry; TEAL, Luca; THOMAS, Harley; WEBSTER, Callum; WHITE, Wade; WILSON, Jack
Tries – Qareqare (3), Thomas, Hutchinson, Butterfield
Conversions – Smith (2)