Report - Warrington Wolves 4-17 Harlequins RL
By Chris Lord
May 21 2007
Warrington Wolves produced the worst display ever witnessed at The Halliwell Jones Stadium by a Wolves side in the shock defeat to Harlequins RL. Wolves dominated field position but failed to find there way through a strong and determind Quins side.
engage Super League XII Round 14
Warrington Wolves 4-17 Harlequins RL
The Halliwell Jones Stadium, Warrington
Saturday 19th May 2007, 19:30
Attendance - 7718
Harlequins strengthened their engage Super League play-off hopes with a hard-fought win over an out-of-sorts Warrington side at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.
The Wolves' top-six hopes took a hammer blow after a fifth defeat in their last six matches and they lost influential loose forward Vinnie Anderson through injury in the first half.
Paul Cullen's men were also handed a disciplinary worry over Great Britain forward Adrian Morley, who was put on report by referee Ben Thaler for a high tackle on hooker Julien Rinaldi midway through the second half.
The Londoners were without six first-choice players whereas Warrington's injury crisis eased further with the return of prop Paul Wood but it was the visitors who looked the more lively side throughout an error-strewn encounter played in front of a 7,718 crowd, the Wolves' lowest of the season.
They struck with two tries in the last eight minutes of the first half to seize control and defended stoically in a tryless second half dominated without conviction by Warrington.
Warrington were expected to complete the double following their 19-12 win at the Twickenham Stoop and they created the first chance as early as the fifth minute when Great Britain centre Martin Gleeson took an inside pass from Lee Briers and drove for the line but lost the ball in the tackle.
Handling errors were a constant theme throughout the opening quarter, which featured no fewer than eight scrums.
It was from a knock-on by Morley that Harlequins opened the scoring on 18 minutes, stand-off Mark McLinden handing off Briers to send winger Mark Gafa over for a try.
Warrington responded immediately with second rower Ben Westwood making amends for conceding a couple of penalties with a clinical break that gave Gleeson a clear run to the line.
The two captains, Rob Purdham (Harlequins) and Briers (Warrington), both failed with the difficult conversions in the swirling wind but Purdham scored the next try after clever footwork from scrum-half Danny Orr.
The former Castleford and Wigan half-back collected his own grubber and then hacked the ball on a second time for the loose forward to grab the vital touch.
Video referee Ian Smith ruled in favour of Harlequins on that occasion before disallowing a second try from Graf, who successfully chased Orr's kick to the line but could not control the last touch.
However, the Londoners stretched their lead two minutes before the interval when substitute Rinaldi darted away from acting half-back and dummied his way past full-back Stuart Reardon for his side's third try, to which Purdham finally added a goal.
Warrington looked invigorated by coach Paul Cullen's half-time pep talk and dominated most of the second half but their handling continued to let them down.
Harlequins created the best chance of the second half but hooker Chad Randsall dropped Tyrone Smith's pass with the line beckoning.
Purdham finally sealed the win with a 75th-minute penalty and centre Paul Sykes added a drop goal for good measure to complete the scoring.
Wolves Tries - Martin Gleeson
Quins Tries - Gafa, Purdham, Rinaldi
Quins Goals - Purdham (2)
Quins Drop-Goal - Sykes
HT Score - 4-14
FT Score - 4-17
Attendance - 7718
Weather - Clear, Breezy
Match Rating - 2/5