And that's a wrap for 2019. A toothless, spineless, pathetic performance devoid of any attacking impetus or creativity saw Warrington compound a woeful end to the season by exiting the Super League playoffs at the first hurdle, losing at home to Castleford Tigers and being eliminated.
The lineup was exactly as I'd hoped and expected in my Sweet 17 piece, with Lama Tasi and Harvey Livett missing out from the 19-man squad, Declan Patton returning at seven and Joe Philbin back on the bench. Castleford went for an adventurous lineup with Daryl Powell playing young Jordan Turner at full back and Peter Mata'utia operating at both full back and at six.
Wire had the first opportunity of the game with a penalty just right of the sticks, but Stefan Ratchford failed to find the target. The forwards were having a good impact, particularly Chris Hill, Mike Cooper and Daryl Clark, though chances in attack were very limited. The maiden points of the night came from the away team. Toby King was trapped in goal despite not wanting the ball and from the resulting set a kick from Paul McShane was touched down by Adam Milner under the sticks. A comfortable conversion for Peter Mata'utia made it 0-6 after 25 minutes, with Castleford starting to dominate the physical battle. Finally some invention and positive play came when Blake Austin broke through, but a brilliant tackle by Jordan Rankin prevented him from progressing, an after-effect of the tackle being an injury which he initially tried to run off, but ultimately saw him fail to emerge for the second half. From dummy half, Daryl Clark looked left and right before forcing his way over the line and looked like he'd got Wire back in the game with a trademark finish, but it was waved away by the video referee as he didn't quite ground the ball.
The second half started excellently though. Ben Currie charged down a Mata'utia kick which led to an attacking set from Wire. Bryson Goodwin was held up over the line, before a try was finally scored. Daryl Clark found Patton, who then played it to the man who had just joined the line from full back - Jake Mamo. Mamo fought off the challenge of Greg Minkin and touched down in the corner. A very good convesion from Ratchford levelled the scores after just two minutes of the second half. Unfortunately, this would last just seven minutes. Poor defence on the left edge once more allowed Jordan Rankin to cross over and restore Castleford's lead, which was 6-12 after a Mata'utia conversion. Wire struggled to respond with errors galore from Patton and nothing in the way of attacking impetus. Cas added an extra two points for a penalty, extending the lead to eight with just under ten minutes remaining. Chris Hill touched down after a good dummy-half kick from Clark in a very similar scoring action to Milner's try, and Ratchford duly converted for 12-14. Cooper was awarded a penalty just shy of the halfway line with six minutes left, and the decision was taken to go for goal. Ratchford's effort was nowhere near and didn't even reach the posts, let alone go over them. Some excellent attacking play on the fifth created a chance for Goodwin and Mamo, but Cas just scrambled back, and the hooter sounded on Wire's season.
A truly pathetic and embarrassing result to compound a woeful second half of the season. Finishing in 4th after being so comfortably 2nd for so long was bad enough, but to then get knocked out of the playoffs in the first round at home is truly disgraceful and humiliating. It is all the harder to take when we went out playing such terrible, turgid stuff with no imagination, creativity or excitement. Serious questions need to be asked of both the squad and of Steve Price, and I will be doing just that in a series of 2019 Season Review articles coming up over the next few weeks.
Can't believe that the year is over.
Daniel (@aloosewire)
No comments:
Post a Comment