Warrington batter Wildcats to secure spot in final

WARRINGTON 56 WAKEFIELD 12

WARRINGTON ran riot in a one-sided Ladbrokes Challenge Cup semi-final yesterday to secure a Wembley date against Hull on August 27.

A Wakefield win looked possible early on when winger Craig Hall gratefully accepted Jacob Miller’s cut-out pass to touch down at the corner for the game’s first try, which was converted by Liam Finn.

But the absence of eight players through injury took its toll as the Wildcats quickly ran out of steam.

Warrington gradually built pressure and, once second rower Jack Hughes crashed through the Wakefield defence on 15 minutes, the outcome quickly became obvious. Gidley added the conversion and then put his side into the lead with a penalty.

Livewire hooker Daryl Clark went through a hole in the Wakefield defence for Warrington’s second try on 23 minutes and winger Rhys Evans followed him over the line four minutes later.

Gidley punished a handling error from the Wakefield line to go over for a fourth Warrington try on the stroke of half-time and added the goal to make it 24-6.

Any prospect of a fightback disappeared within six minutes of the restart when Chris Sandow took a return pass from centre Ryan Atkins to cross for the Wolves’ fifth try.

Atkins then freed winger Matty Russell with a slick pass and fullback Stefan Ratchford was in support to add to his side’s try tally.

Wakefield had prop David Fifita sin-binned on 50 minutes for a high tackle and they conceded two more tries while down to 12 men.

Russell went 70 metres after intercepting Anthony Tupou’s pass to create the position for second rower Ben Currie to go over, and King won the race to Brad Dwyer’s kick on the last tackle to notch his first try.

Veteran forward Ben Westwood crashed through a tiring defence to take Warrington’s total to the half-century and, although full-back Max Jowitt pulled a try back for Wakefield on 67 minutes, the Wolves had the final say when King went over for his second try.