WARRINGTON Wolves ended 15 years of pain with a fantastic 18-36 victory
over St Helens to reach their first ever Grand Final at Old Trafford as
talisman Lee Briers rolled back the years against his former club with a man of the match performance.
Head of coaching Tony Smith masterminded a victory which sees him become the first coach to take two different clubs to an Old Trafford final, which will be against his former club Leeds Rhinos, where he first tasted success. It is also the first time the Grand Final will be a repeat of the Wembley final, as the Wolves look to complete the double.
Trailing 14-12 at the break, the Wolves rattled St Helens with some breathtaking rugby thanks to some inspirational play by Briers, who will now be hoping to add a Grand Final ring to his three Wembley winners medals.
It was Saints who started the brighter and took the lead on 11 minutes through Tommy Makinson who was unable to convert his own effort from wide out.
But while Warrington were on the back foot for much of the first half they scored with their first attack of the game through Chris Riley, with Brett Hodgson cooly slotting over from wide out to give the Wolves the lead against the run of play.
Things looked ominous for the Wolves as St Helens piled on the pressure adding further tries from Francis Meli and Paul Wellens as they opened up a 14-6 gap. But crucially for the Wolves they scored just before the break after a great pass from Briers split the Saints defence for Simon Grix to touch down despite the attentions of three defenders. Hodgson made no mistake with the conversion to make it 14-12 at the break and game on.
Despite being on the defensive for much of the first half Warrington showed great strength and resolve and turned the game on its head in the second half as they ran Saints ragged.
Joel Monaghan out jumped the Saints defence to give the Wolves the lead on 47 minutes and two quick fire tries from the strong running Trent Waterhouse on 60 and 63 minutes put the Wolves in control, with Hodgson landing all three conversions making it 14-30.
When Riley raced over for his second try on 67 minutes it was game over although Hodsgon couldn’t land the extras. Meli got a late consolation but the Wolves had the final say as Hodgson slotted over a late penalty to complete the scoring.
Tickets for the Grand Final will now be on sale from 9am, Sunday, to season ticket holders until mid day Monday, when they go on general sale.
Waterhouse powers through four tackles to touchdown
Ryan Atkins off loads the ball
Two try hero Chris Riley
Saints: Paul Wellens; Tommy Makinson, Chris Flannery, Josh Jones, Francis Meli; Lance Hohaia, Jonny Lomax; Josh Perry, James Roby, Anthony Laffranchi, Tony Puletua, Mark Flanagan, Jon Wilkin. Subs: Sia Soliola, Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook, Paul Clough, Andy Dixon.
Wolves: Brett Hodgson; Joel Monaghan, Stefan Ratchford, Ryan Atkins, Chris Riley; Lee Briers, Richie Myler; Chris Hill, Micky Higham, Ben Harrison , Ben Westwood , Trent Waterhouse, Simon Grix. Subs: Adrian Morley , Michael Monaghan, Paul Wood, Mike Cooper 
The Warrington players and fans celebrate
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