It was anything but a Good Friday for the Warrington Wolves as a dismal performance saw us crash to our second straight defeat, with Salford running riot to inflict a 36-12 loss on the Wire at the Halliwell Jones Stadium. Here is one of my less enjoyable match reports...
As expected, Ben Westwood returned to the starting 13 in place of Joe Philbin, while Bryson Goodwin came in on the wing. Toby King picked up a slight injury in training, so Harvey Livett took his place. The rest of the team was unchanged from last week, and so was the performance. This was an error-strewn debacle from start to finish, and we never looked like winning. Salford had only won one of their last six coming into this game but were comfortable winners against a dire Wire display.
The scoring was opened after just nine minutes when a Robert Lui kick was touched down by Kris Welham, after a poor attempt to tackle from Ryan Atkins. Just a few minutes later, Joey Lussick scored after feigning to move one way and then the other before running straight to the line, helped on his way by one of the worst excuses for a tackle you'll ever see, courtesy of Jack Hughes. Krisnan Inu was on goal-kicking form and converted both tries, before adding a conversion for a 0-14 lead. There was one moment to cheer for Wire when Daryl Clark found Blake Austin, who dummied his way to the line and a ninth try in the last five games. Stefan Ratchford converted to close the gap to eight but it didn't last long.
Three minutes after Austin's try, a high kick was completely fumbled by Ratchford, who had another dire day at the office, which allowed Lui to send Daniel Murray over. Another daft penalty was conceded and Inu took the two points, before the Devils added another try to their repertoire, this time from Lui himself. The pathetic first-half display was greeted with some boos, though had Atkins found a free Josh Charnley with a simple enough pass early on in the game, the deficit would've been less.
The second half didn't start any better. Another stupid penalty was given away and Lui converted, before some God-awful defending from Bryson Goodwin allowed Jake Bibby to dive in in the corner. Lui missed the conversion but soon after, yet another silly penalty was conceded and this time he kicked successfully, meaning the score was now an embarrassing 6-36. There never looked to be much sign of Wire getting back in the game. Austin tried a clever kick across the field to Charnley to try and get the winger away, which was about as good as it got.
Kris Welham was sent to the sin bin and Warrington at least capitalised on the man advantage by scoring a decent try. A clever offload from Mike Cooper allowed Daryl Clark and Blake Austin to combine, the latter sending Goodwin through in the corner for his first try of the season. Ratchford converted via the post for a 12-36 scoreline, which is how it stayed. Wire looked like we had scored again when Matt Davis grounded the ball, but it was ruled out. There were a few more chances in the final stages of the game - one of which involving Atkins yet again throwing straight into touch when Charnley was alongside him, while Declan Patton's kicking was erratic at best - one of which went in completely the opposite direction to the one he was facing.
The game was pretty much summed up when Patton dropped the ball when he tried to pick it up from the back of the scrum.
Absolutely appalling. The level of performance was pathetic and at times the attitude wasn't there either. Atkins, Patton, Murdoch-Masila, Livett and Ratchford were all terrible, and it's hard to see Price not making changes for Monday. God knows he needs to.
Have a read of my rankings and then see what you make of my preview for the Hull KR game - which is now must win. And remember,
It's always our year.
Daniel (@aloosewire)
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