It was a real game of two halves for Warrington in the capital city, with a superb first-half display followed up with an insipid second half that failed to yield a single point.
There were a few surprises in the lineup with Lama Tasi coming in for the suspended Chris Hill at prop, while Luther Burrell was named on the interchange bench for his first Warrington appearance. Pat Moran was named in the 19-man squad but didn’t make the 17, which seemed a waste of an opportunity as he could’ve played for Sheffield on Friday night instead. There was no place for Sitaleki Akauola, who was rested, which meant that Matt Davis started the game at loose forward. Around 1000 Wire fans made the trip down south to the very pleasant Ealing Trailfinders Sports Ground, a well-designed stadium.
Wire made an ideal start to the match and were in front after just five minutes when Blake Austin’s high kick was fumbled by Kieran Dixon, allowing Tom Lineham to race clear unopposed and score the opening try of the game, which was converted by Declan Patton. Nine minutes later, the lead was doubled when Mike Cooper forced his way over the line and got the ball down with an outstretched arm after a superb no-look pass from Daryl Clark. Patton was on target with a simple kick for a 0-12 lead, though it wasn’t all plain sailing for Wire, who were guilty of two ridiculous knock-ons from successive kick-offs, first from Lineham and then from Jake Mamo.
Despite this careless handling, the Warrington defence was firm, and the attack was cutting through the Broncos. A neat offload from Cooper got Ben Currie away, and Currie made a good break before himself finding a tricky ball to Bryson Goodwin, who had no trouble shimmying his way home from 30 metres out for his first try since the news of his impending departure broke. Another Patton conversion had Wire comfortable at 0-18 and scoring at a rate of a point per minute. More solid defence kept London out and it wasn’t long until Warrington were in for another try, this time through full-back Jake Mamo. Matt Davis played a clever pass at speed to the former Huddersfield back, who did well to stay on his feet and round Alex Walker to touch down for his sixth Warrington try, right under the sticks. Patton was presented with the simple task of making the score 0-24, and he duly obliged.
Two more tries would follow for Steve Price’s team before half-time. A good run from Jack Hughes nearly got him over, and his quick play-the-ball gave Mamo the chance to score a second, but he instead turned and offloaded back to Hughes, who powered his way over to score from close range. A fifth Patton goal extended the lead to 30 points, and just a minute later another try came when a high cross-field kick from Patton was attacked by Toby King, and the centre calmly collected the ball and sold a quick dummy, allowing him a gap to score in, marking his seventh try of 2019. Patton made no mistake and the score was a resounding 0-36 at half-time after a highly professional and ruthless display full of technical quality and excellent second-phase play.
This performance was worlds apart from what was about to ensue in the second period. London registered their first points of the game two minutes after the restart, Matty Fozzard scoring from dummy-half on the second tackle after some slack positioning from Jason Clark and Mamo. Dixon converted to reduce the arrears back to thirty points. The following exchanges were scrappy and full of errors from both sides. Warrington looked to have bagged a seventh try of the match when interchange Danny Walker crossed for what would have been his first score for the club, but the referee adjudged Walker to have been held up. Jason Clark also had a try disallowed for a ball steal, but the most concerning moment of the second-half was Blake Austin being forced off with a knock, which Steve Price has thankfully confirmed is nothing to worry about. This brought about an interesting change of shape, with Currie moving from the second row into the halves to replace Austin, King replacing Currie in the second row, and Luther Burrell making his rugby league debut in the centre. Burrell’s first involvement was a decent hit ten metres from the London line, which was about all that happened in the remainder of the match. James Cunningham thought he had scored for London but was held up, while Jason Clark and Ben Currie both made big tackles to prevent London from improving their tally.
This was a performance that was outstanding for 40 minutes, but was flat and devoid of any spark for 40 minutes too. Defensively it was very good, with only six points conceded, but to be 36 in front and not score a single point in 42 minutes is very frustrating and a missed opportunity in terms of points difference and morale. Still, it’s a valuable two points and a day that will be remembered for Luther Burrell’s debut. Good performances from Daryl Clark, Bryson Goodwin, Toby King, Ben Currie and Tom Lineham will dominate the praise, though there has to be concern of the lack of attack that followed Blake Austin and Daryl Clark being withdrawn.
Next up is a home game against Salford before a trip to Castleford, which is followed by the Challenge Cup semi-final at Bolton against Hull FC. The next two games are great chances to build some momentum ahead of that clash with FC in the semi, and the first-half from today proves that we are capable of playing some lovely, free-flowing stuff.
It’s always our year.
Daniel (@aloosewire)
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