Report: Warrington 22-14 Hull FC

The Wire are going to Wembley folks! A brilliant team performance full of grit and heart earned Warrington a place in the Challenge Cup Final for the second successive year. Here's how it played out as Wire defeated Hull FC at the University of Bolton Stadium...


This week's team news was met with great shock as it emerged that Josh Charnley wasn't available for this game after picking up a knee injury in the week. This bad news was counteracted with the more than welcome return of Stefan Ratchford, who started at full back and was playing for the first time since the defeat to (ironically) Hull FC in mid-May. Ratchford took the place of Jake Mamo at 1, with Mamo moving to the left wing to replace Charnley. Jason Clark continued at 13, while Ben Murdoch-Masila made his return to fitness and was on the bench. Surprisingly, Jake Connor was on the bench for Hull.

Wire made a bright start to the game and defended well and hard in the opening few sets. Daryl Clark played the ball to Tom Lineham on the fifth tackle, though Lineham was brought down and the ball was handed over. A knock-on on the first tackle from FC was capitalised on by Wire, with Ben Currie playing a quick ball out to Bryson Goodwin, who crossed in the corner to score right in front of the away fans. Moments earlier, Goodwin had been guilty of poor decision-making when failing to spot the clear run of Lineham on his short side. The video ref confirmed the try and Warrington were in front after seven minutes, though Ratchford, returning to his goal-kicking duties, did not add the extras. A penalty was conceded for offside and Marc Sneyd surprisingly decided to take the two points, and halved the deficit with a goal. Wire had a slight let off when Jamie Shaul lost the ball after a great break that looked like yielding a try. Shortly afterwards, it looked like the black and whites would score a try when they broke following a Currie knock-on but Albert Kelly's final ball hit Jordan Lane in the face and went into touch. After 23 minutes, FC got themselves ahead when a ball out wide to Ratu Naulago gave the winger the platform to run - and run he did. Naulago sprinted past Lineham and a brilliant tackle from Ratchford prevented him from going all the way. A fantastic swerving cross-field kick from Albert Kelly landed in the hands of Bureta Faraimo, who bundled past Toby King and Blake Austin to score. Sneyd missed the conversion and so the score was 4-6 in favour of Lee Radford's team. Sneyd soon added two points from a penalty though, to extend the lead to four.

Murdoch-Masila was on from the interchange bench and was held up over the line on the fifth tackle. On the last though, a pinpoint kick from Declan Patton was caught in the air by Currie, and the second rower made amends for his 2016 Wembley heartbreak by touching down and restoring parity in the scoreline with a quite superb finish. This time, Ratchford kicked the goal from a slightly less wide angle than the first try and gave Warrington a 10-8 lead. The final action of the first-half was a penalty attempt from Sneyd, though the half back missed the goal, and so Steve Price's team were in front after a pulsating first-half battle, in which the Wire forwards were terrific - the amount of work Chris Hill, Daryl Clark and Mike Cooper were getting through was tremendous, with Jason Clark and Joe Philbin adding a lot too - while Jack Hughes was having his best game in a long time. Already the return of Ratchford was having a huge impact on the attacking shape and the defensive solidity, while Blake Austin was controlling the game very intelligently.

Warrington started the second half brutally in defence, pinning Hull back at every opportunity and showing mature game management. Ten minutes into the second period, Wire nailed the third try of the afternoon. An absolutely wonderful cross-field kick from Austin on the fifth tackle was caught by Toby King, who was outstanding all afternoon, and King crossed to further extend the Wire lead. King has now scored in the 2016, 2018 and 2019 cup semi-finals and is becoming a scorer of big tries in big moments. Ratchford converted and the score was 16-8. More top defence from Warrington kept FC out for a while, though Faraimo looked like he had scored in the corner. The try was correctly ruled out for an obvious obstruction on Austin, who managed the next two sets marvellously, trapping Jamie Shaul in goal and taking the pressure off the Wire players. 

With 15 minutes to go, top-class defence from Ratchford, Daryl Clark and Cooper prevented Micky Paea from scoring, though Scott Taylor bundled over after receiving the ball from Danny Houghton at dummy half. An easy conversion from Sneyd made it 16-14 and a very nervy finish. Jake Mamo and Ratchford collected high kicks from Hull very well, and then with three minutes left Hull got a drop-out when Kelly's kick was batted away. Mercifully, Mark Minichello knocked the ball on and Wire were safe, even without Goodwin, who had gone off injured. Wire got down the other end of the field and upon the turnover, FC dropped the ball on the second tackle, and it fell into the feet of Joe Philbin. The forward kicked the ball towards the goal area and touched down to score the winning try and send Warrington to the Challenge Cup Final and to Wembley. Ratchford converted the try and the hooter sounded - Steve Price celebrated and the Wire end was in raptures as the club made its third final under Price - and a back-to-back Wembley appearance, this time against St Helens.

What a day. From 1-16 (not 17, as Tasi didn't come on, which I think is wonderful) we were terrific. The spirit, grit and determination we showed was admirable. Every player can be proud of their performance and they have taken their side to another cup final. The defensive work of Lineham and Mamo out wide was superb, while Goodwin and King put in mega performances at centre. The second row of Currie and Hughes was a rock solid partnership today, with both playing out of their skin. Jason Clark had one of his best games for Wire, while the interchanges of Philbin, Murdoch-Masila and Davis all had big impacts on the game. So often this season we have lost the forwards battle, but Hill and Cooper were magnificent and laid the platform for that win by dominating the pack, while Daryl Clark was splendid as ever. Patton was impressive at 7 and registered an assist, while Blake Austin produced a big-game performance - the way he controlled the tempo and pace of the game was outstanding. For me though, the star man was Stefan Ratchford at full back. Nine weeks out and only finding out on Friday night that he was playing, and to put that performance in - wow. Our attack was so much more fluid and threatening with Ratchford in it - we have missed him so much from that point of view. A truly great day. The team deserved it today and so did Steve Price. It was also nice to see the injured players including Ben Westwood, Josh Charnley and Kevin Brown enjoying the celebrations post-game.

We've given them stick over the last few weeks, but the Wire made us proud today.

It's always our year.

Daniel (@aloosewire)